Seed of Love: Part 7: Brian and Luna: Finale
by XT-421
Summary: Helen started a war in Troy, and that was with just the look of a face. Julie's death caused worse. Brian and Luna may be the main couple, but everyone else, esp. Tails and Cosmo are also focused on. There isn't much more to say.
1. Julie

**Folks, there isn't much to say. I have had some bad experiences with my last story, so until I get motivated enough (or better yet, get a tape of My Cousin Vinny for the court scene in it,) I will be writing this. For those of you who've agitated me (there aren't many,) and to EVERYONE who's bullied me around, note that this is where I say "dammit, fuck off, all of you!"**

**Because of people in my life who are like this, they have created a new side of me that is just starting to show it's face... this is YOUR creation, the darkest side of me I have to offer.**

**I won't be making commentary like this on this particular story after this first chapter. I think I will make it a part of the story, just watch...**

**There will be no enjoyment here...**

**I hate humanity sometimes...**

* * *

It was all Julie's fault. I knew she was no good from the moment I met her. If it weren't for her…

Oh who the _hell_ am I kidding? I miss that stupid fleshie like I'd miss my own mother, if I had a real one. She loved me, despite my brutal hostility towards her, and I really wish that I could've at least come to a friendly status with her before she died. She gave my father more pleasure than any man, or robot, could've deserved. She spoiled him rotten, and loved him almost more than I secretly had. I miss them both so much.

Needless to say, however, Julie _did_ start this. The moment my father met her, he had an expiration date labeled upon him. I tried to tell myself otherwise for the longest time, but when I finally realized it, it was already too late. Somehow, we of THEA all knew he was going to be the first to die. He'd risk his hide in front of the Mythic Ones for this girl, and I've finally, due to his horrendous behavior, understand what it means to truly love someone.

The moment she died, by causes I'm still not sure of, as my father was unable to talk to anyone after it happened, my father had rushed in and attempted the unthinkable, using his powers to bring a soul, unconditionally, back into the realm of the living. He was punished, and, if there is such a thing as heaven, I certainly hope that Julie wasn't denied it because of my father's love for her.

He was torn apart by them, the Mythic Ones whose names I'm not permitted to know or speak of. He was beaten, thrashed, and treated with the greatest punishment a robot could possibly assume. But, no one could've predicted what was to happen next… no one, not even me, his own daughter.

I would've been able to tell this story a bit better, had I actually been there, but I've pieced it together from the minds of those I've read, the ones my father used to refer to as 'friend'. I was gone, trying to sort out this newfound feeling of depression for my father's apparent death, and the loss of his girlfriend. There in my desired solitude, I fell into my first relationship with a now vile man named Zachery who cheated on his own girlfriend to try to sleep with me, and then never told either of us of the other. I never really wanted it to happen, but, when it did, I was hoping that my foolish actions would lure my father out of his stasis and back to reality to whoop my ass back into line. It never happened, and both his other girlfriend and I got revenge on _our_ man. Carla and I have been on neutral terms ever since we struck back.

However, all of you who hear my tale, be warned. This is not for the faint of heart. By telling it, I do make myself more at ease with my foolish actions, and my father's, but, it remains the most sorrowful chapter in my tragic existence.

My name is Quasar Flitscelia Truthfinder, and this is my recollection of one of the most horrifying foes Mobius has ever seen.

* * *

"Cosmo, I really do love you." Tails calmly sighed into his wife's hair as they both watched the starry heavens gleam with bright lights, it was another meteor shower.

"Yes… I do to Tails. Do you remember? All of those years ago? The last time we watched a meteor shower?"

"Yeah, that was just before we got married. XT came crashing down on us, and helped Eggman capture you to trick me into proposing." 16 years was a long time to remember.

"In fact… our anniversary is coming up, is it not?" Cosmo cocked an eyebrow at Tails, who innocently looked into space, distracted strategically.

"Look at that!" He exclaimed, as if to pull Cosmo off the topic as well. He pointed outwards towards a glowing yellow line in the sky.

Cosmo looked, as if to amuse Tails, but found herself equally intrigued.

"What _is_ that?" She asked, as the line vanished, and a red ball came flying from the sky, shooting into the atmosphere.

"I don't know, but XT would be a lot more controlled than that! It looks to impact the planet!"

"Tails, I'm scared." Cosmo whispered, a childish fear of space and glowing objects coming at her never ceased to antagonize her life.

In a deft move, Tails scooped Cosmo up and ran her off to the bedroom in their newly constructed house. Brian, only 11 years old, was still a bit upset that Sarah chose Stephen over him, and they both knew of his secret pain. That was a year ago, and he was still a bit upset about it. He was sound asleep, or at least, he better have been, as it was just past midnight.

Tails had gone to work as a professor at a university, and wasn't home as often as he'd like to be. That's one of the main reasons he and Cosmo cherished what little time they had together anymore. It wasn't the jolliest of situations, but it was one of the happiest, most blissful relationships out there. Tails' job, however, racked in the money like no other job could. The smartest, and legally qualified, figure on the planet, Tails could be accepted almost anywhere; even into prestigious human academies, where his kind was unwanted and misunderstood.

Cosmo still worked at her plant shop, selling off natures beauties that she'd help grow with her magical touch. Only there in the greenhouse, by the plants themselves and her fellow employees and employer, was she fully accepted and trusted.

Daisy and Brunis were living on their own, somewhere, and would occasionally come by to visit with their newborn baby Nicholas, or Nick, for short. They had apparently scored their own business building and furnishing houses. Brunis had superpowers when it came to carpentry, and Daisy had a knack for cleaning, arranging, and styling furniture around the house, making it seem like a picture. The two made as great a team as they did as a couple.

Sarah and Stephen, well, Tails and Cosmo had their suspicions with them ever since they were caught with Sarah letting Stephen try to milk her, but nothing had happened yet, if anything. Both of them were just 11 and 12, so young, and already they'd gone through so much. Stephen was already acting like an adult, and that took Tails by surprise a bit more than the rest of the gang. By the age of 11, he was already starting to show signs of, well, something no one could fully grasp, except Tails. It was an IQ higher than his own. Tails was quiet about it, but ever since Stephen built Sarah's arm out of the husk Tails provided, and made it _work properly_, Tails knew something was up. Stephen had begun learning at a rapid and alarming rate.

For all anyone knew, Stephen, though having the body of an 11 year old, was possibly created only a year and a half ago, even if, it was only a year ago that he'd begun learning, and thus, he far surpassed Tails. In fact, Tails had calculated that in a few years, if this rate somehow kept on going, Stephen's IQ and general logic would not only surpass the chart's limits, but also be higher than Tails' IQ, _and_ Damian's, put together.

It was something to worry about, but he kept his mouth shut. Stephen could, and easily would be a threat to all life on Mobius. With knowledge, understanding, and power so profoundly superior to any being, he could find new technologies in his doodling, and create weapons to rival the arsenal of XT-421 himself.

He was dangerous, no matter how friendly, and Tails, the boy's own idol, kept him under close watch, secretly monitoring his progress, hoping that his mental growth would stop eventually, or at least slow down.

Tails cuddled with Cosmo as they got into bed. He fiddled with her hair as he made a dome over her with his body. Warm and fuzzy as ever, Cosmo shrunk into the confines of his chest and found herself racing off to slumber land, only seconds before Tails.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day, or so they all thought.

* * *

"I'm going to get back at her… I swear to God! No one takes my Queen away from me! Not even herself! She is mine, and I will take back what belongs to me…" Richard the cat, after having spent a year in an insane asylum and prison, growled. He knew just how to get back at everyone too. His plots were usually flawless, and he always had the money to fund it.

His parents had tried to get him out, but, XT and THEA had made sure there was no bail available for the cat, as he knew what would happen if he escaped prematurely. There was no escape until his psychiatrist, whom XT had specifically picked, as he worked for free, and was unfazed by money, gave him the go-ahead. He was calm, collected, and peaceful, the exact opposite of Richard.

With a twitch in his eye, he began to sleep, or at least lay down until he could plot some more in peace. Somewhere in the faking, he actually found himself asleep, and didn't budge for a few hours.

Suddenly, a loud explosion startled him into alertness. Military men rushed through the halls, hurrying themselves over to a breach in the facility. Richard though little of it, until he heard the iconic laugh.

"Muhohohohohohoho!" It was Richard's top client in borrowing money, Damian Robotnik.

Richard just sat up in his cell, looked to the padded ceiling and cackled. "Ahahahahahahahaha! REVENGE WILL BE MINE!"

A moment later, a volley of gunfire short across his cell's window, and then, the door was yanked off with excessive force. A clawed hand reached in quickly and grabbed Richard, sucking him into a massive chamber inside the robot.

With the roar of rockets behind him, and the thunderous laughter of his kidnapper and himself filling the vessel, they disappeared.

A fat megalomaniac and genius, along with a rich, psychotic rapist were on the loose, again.

* * *

_Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, just beneath the impact of the meteor._

"G.U.N. Submersible to base, we've found it, repeat, we've found it." The little submersible hooked its powerful electromagnetic claws onto the arm of the creature, frozen in a contorted position, a small locket intertwined in its fingers. As the pod pulled at the figure, the locket dislodged itself, and with a gentle, liquid motion, it plummeted downwards into the sand, never to be seen again.

The little locket was golden, a heart shape. Beneath a picture of a baby girl being cradled by a tall, proud robot nanny, with gleaming amethyst wings folded halfway behind it, the words "My darling Julie," on it.

The sub was pulled away via cable, and with it, the owner of the locket from the small treasure.

My dear friends, I am afraid this is but the beginning. It is strange to me, the emotions of living beings, but I _can_ empathize with them, disturbing as it may seem. You think you know what happens next? Oh, well time will tell that one, just trust me.

Helen's face started the War in Troy. Julie started _this_.


	2. Daisy

In your world's history, many wars were fought. The one I'll focus in on here was… um… World War II. In it, there were two theaters, if my limited facts are correct. The European, and the Pacific. Germany and Japan versus Great Britain and America. The latter was losing for a bulk of the war, but then, two battles occurred to change that, maybe three if the border between Germany and Russia is added into the theaters.

The Battle of Midway, D-day, and the Battle of Stalingrad, those three are the ones I'm speaking of. Germany and Japan went on the defensive there, and started losing their conquered lands. Why am I describing foolish human wars? Well, the wise may see the comparison between these and another incident that occurs soon in this tale. And, hopefully, more shall see it as it progresses.

I guess I'll continue with this story… I've spent too much time sitting on this rock overlooking this little lake, wishing, of all the stupid things, that my dad could've at least done some father-daughter things that… those dumb fleshies do… sorry for my monologue… I'll get on with it now.

* * *

Stephen was up late again. He never told anyone, and no one ever knew about his late night experiments. He had calculated one day that he only needed around 3 hours of sleep to maintain optimal work, and all because he was designed to be a war machine, and war machines weren't supposed to rest.

All by himself, he had created a minor cure for his multiple personality disorder, and, it was all possible because of his darling girlfriend Sarah. Had she let him go, he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from killing her. He'd only had two more sessions that came close to harming her, and those were both on experimental medicines that he was testing. Only once was she awake out of those times, and she was shaken up for a few days afterwards, but tried to hide it from Stephen.

Recently however, Stephen's mind was troubled, and constantly restless. His thoughts were constantly led onto a horrible train of thought. He believed that, soon, a horrible change was going to happen. He was hoping that his premonitions weren't showing through to anyone, he didn't want to worry the minds of his friends and family.

_You're all going to die._ That voice in his head spoke to him like a serpent.

"I know… and I fear that that's sooner than later…" Stephen massaged his temples as he began typing in statistics into a computer Tails got him for his "birthday" a few months ago.

He was going to predict the future with this machine. Entering in everything he could about the world, he began formulating a program that could prove him wrong. Or so, he thought it would prove him wrong.

* * *

The next morning, Tails was awakened to the soft nudging of his wife. This was rather unusual, as she was normally fairly tender with him, or chose not to wake him.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Tails' sleep eyes peered into Cosmo's.

"She's gone Tails!" Cosmo's voice was a worried whisper.

"What do you mean? Who's gone?" Tails' snapped to attention and sat up.

Cosmo was still kneeling at the bedside, too disturbed to do more than look up at him.

"I went to visit our little grandson, and he's vanished, along with Daisy and Brunis."

"What? Why??" Tails too was worried now. His daughter would never have decided to run away without a reason, and even then, it was hard to move her.

"I haven't the slightest idea. I came to their house a few minutes ago, and their door was open. So much was gone from their house, it was scary. All of their furniture remains, but… their dishes, blankets, clothes… all gone."

"They moved?"

"I don't think so, not on such short notice."

"What the hell has gotten into that girl?" Tails was a bit bitter still from the awakening. Mornings were not his greatest part of the day. Tails hopped out of bed, stretched, and then flew Cosmo out the door to investigate his daughter's abandoned home.

The moment they got there, Tails noticed a single thing that Cosmo had not, the television was still in place, and on. There, a new station was on, and a note above the TV informed them of almost everything.

Tails began to read the note as Cosmo focused on the news.

_Dear Mom, Dad, and Brian_

_I really, really, did not want to have to do this. But, it is for the best. Brunis and I have gone far away with Nick. We're petrified for him. Few know of our blessed child, and we intend to keep it that way. Certain events have brought old evils back into my mind, and I don't want my son to have to deal with the demons I created._

_Also, I do not want you two to get involved. You two are getting older, and with Brian going into puberty soon, if he does, I guess, you guys will have your hands full. I don't want to be a bother, and I don't want him to come after you at all, so, I've left nothing to track us but this note, which I swear won't reveal anything about our destination. I can tell you this much, however, we're on the move, and have little intention of settling anywhere that we can be spotted._

_One day, we may come and visit. And I know this is a bad way to write down my potentially final goodbye, but, sayonara everyone. Mom, I was glad to know you as a mother, and someone so gentle and caring with my various troubles. Dad, I am just pleased that I can call the great Miles Prower my father, biological or not. And Brian, don't fret over Sarah so much, you'll find someone eventually, and I'm sure she'll be the most beautiful girl in the world. I bid thee all farewell, and with a final apology, I leave._

_I am horribly sorry._

_Love, Daisy Ketuno._

Tails was shocked. A tear fell from his eyes as the he reread his daughter's letter of apology.

Just as the letter fell from the ground, he looked at the news. It wasn't new, it was a recording on repeat.

"We interrupt this program to make the following announcement."

"This morning around 2:14 AM the national insane asylum was broken into. Mysteriously, no money was taken, and the perpetrator, identifiable to the best of our ability only as a mechanical automaton, left quickly after appearing, though damaging much in the process. After the break-in, a search was conducted, and one of the patients was missing. The missing patient was none other than the infamous Richard the Cat, imprisoned there under the charges of rape and kidnapping of Daisy Prower, now Ketuno, daughter to Miles Prower. Investigators are searching for the whereabouts of Richard now, but as a caution to everyone out on the streets, be warned if you see this figure."

A picture of Richard, his mug shot, was shown on the screen. "That is all, than-" The screen flickered once.

"We interrupt this program to make the following-"

Tails turned the television off and looked at Cosmo. He picked up the letter, and presented it to her.

As her eyes scanned the paper, confirming her fears as she did so, she began to cry. Tails caught her as she collapsed from sorrow, and rubbed her back with the skin of his paw.

"There there, she's under Brunis's care, nothing will go wrong."

"Tails! She's GONE! She won't come back, and you know this! She'll be too worried that Richard will be watching us to get her, or worse, waiting for a reason to capture and interrogate us! She! Won't! Come! Back!"

Cosmo pounded on Tails' back lightly, trying to vent her emotions.

"Listen Cosmo," Tails was getting frustrated with her, "I don't want to see you worry like this! It is better that she is safe from harm than able to see us. I know you know this, now calm down!"

"But how do you know she is?! What if Richard has her now? She'll be in a state worse than dead, and Brunis will be mutilated, and our little grandson Nicholas will be abused and shunned by that psycho! What if she's already been caught?"

"You've got to believe in her dammit!" Tails was becoming too frustrated, and he set Cosmo down on the couch, storming off.

Cosmo hiccupped and whimpered as she sat on the couch, crying to herself, something she was not used to. _What have I done?_

There was no talk between them for a few hours.

* * *

Stephen had stayed up for the whole night, worrying his mind away on his new program. It was going to take him a total of 35 hours, 25 minutes, and 17 seconds, of continuous work, or so he guessed. He was already done with at least 5 of those hours.

But, to fill the part of a good boyfriend, he crawled into Sarah's bed ten minutes before she was to wake up, feigning slumber until she awoke. His arms gently wrapped around her sides and snuggled up closer than anyone else in the world was allowed. Kissing was the furthest they'd every really thought of, aside from the one milking incident.

Exactly when expected, Sarah began to rouse. Her arms wiggled out of Stephen's, and then pulled them in tighter. She began moaning and groaning as she was slowly rocked by Stephen's frame, now practically tangled over her own. Stephen never minded the fact that Sarah would grab his limbs and move them about her as if he were a blanket. He figured Sarah wanted him wherever she put him, so he never argued. Sarah, well, she was a bit different. She was always a bit flustered when she woke up and she was clinging to Stephen's two arms, tangled together and strewn over her body.

This morning was no different.

"Stephen! Oh my gosh, I'm SO sorry!" Sarah quickly tried to scramble from the mess she made. Stephen allowed it by unwinding his arms.

Sarah stood next to the bed, the red blush standing out amidst the darkness of their small room. Stephen only slithered his way to her and materialized behind her, resting his head on her shoulders.

"It's fine Sarah." He held her waist as her arm grasped at the link. His arms gently bobbed up and down along her waistline, only brightening her blush.

"Oh Stephen… I am so glad I met you…"

"And I'm glad you found me. Do you want me to attach your arm? Or do you have it down?"

"I think I've got it…" Sarah grabbed the tool off their nightstand, and placed it inside its slot. Tightening a few knobs and clicking a few buttons inside an open panel, she ran a check on her arm, wiggling her fingers and making shapes, making sure it was on right.

Stephen smiled coolly as she looked back up at him, grinning.

"Well, shall we get some breakfast?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow as he held out his arm.

"Let's!" Sarah chirped, walking out clinging to his arm.

They were a bit surprised to see Brian at their table, tears in his eyes. The plant/fox boy had his head buried in his hands, wetting their wood breakfast table.

"There there Brian, everything will get better."

"No it won't! Dad yelled at mom and they won't even look at each other!"

"Yeah they will. They just don't fight often… Sonic and I do it all the time! It makes mom's and dad's love each other more, once they come to forgive each other, that is."

"I'm just lucky Amy is the forgiving type..." Sonic rubbed his head, which was usually the target when Amy 'fought' him.

"They won't talk to each other until Daisy comes back!" Brian wailed.

Sarah and Stephen looked at the boy and empathy washed over them. His parents fought and didn't want to do anything today, so he had to feed himself.

"I can see why she ran away though… I mean… Richard's loose. It wouldn't surprise me if he showed up at her house now…" Sonic mumbled.

"But, why didn't she stay? I mean, she'd need our help more than ever."

"Because she'd be worried about us getting hurt, even though we could survive anything that snob can dish out."

"She knows we don't get hurt, I bet she just ran away because she doesn't want to have to help us when we do get confronted by Richard.

"No-" Sonic was about to retort again.

"STOP IT! MY SISTER WOULD NOT WANT YOU ARGUING!!" Brian screamed, tears flooding from his eyes.

"Hey, Brian." Sarah nudged his shoulder, a little pastry in her hands, "eat this, let's go to school, ok?"

Brian choked up on his tears and didn't say much as he accepted the gift. Together, the trio walked the distance to school with their bags on.

* * *

Daisy and Brunis had graduated early, soon after establishing their careers. So, soon after they were married, they stopped going to school, and Sarah, Stephen, and Brian began walking alone to school. All of the parents agreed that if anything happened to Sarah, Stephen would get her safe, and if anything happened to Brian, Sarah would yell at Stephen to get him safe. And if anything happened to Stephen, well, nothing was going to happen to a miniature version of Shadow the Hedgehog.

School hadn't changed too much, but the one change that did occur was drastic.

* * *

Yeah, we all left Mobius to do our own thing, determined to not help anyone for a bit. Besides, the inter-dimensional travel was affecting our human luggage in some disturbing ways. So, we had to heal Julie for a bit before she could follow us places. Besides, my dad wanted to help other people, and he did his best to try.

I was off helping my own share of people, doing what I did best. And well, we left the gym to work by itself.

However, there was a problem with this. After our multiple appearances in public, GUN got scared, and began researching all they could about us at THEA. What can I say? We're threatening.

* * *

GUN closed the gym, and was still in the process of dismantling it. Every so often, GUN agents would come in and try to invade the gym, trying to figure out how it was made, what it is made of, and how it all works.

However, the AI placed within it, probably dumb and illiterate compared to XT, was tricky and playful with them, and didn't do much. His name was Thomas, and he would often play with the agents that went in, making puzzles and illusions for them to solve.

No one had been allowed inside the gym other than the agents, however. This saddened the school's students, they all loved the gym. It was one of the most memorable places in the school, and the teacher was a strange, funny guy, or a short cute girl, which was always interesting to them.

For the trio, school was now long and boring. At lunch, they'd sit together, conversing over the idiocy of the staff at the school, and the obvious lack of authority. Stephen would always swear that one day he'd be a teacher, along with a bunch of robots to replace all of the mediocre ones residing in the facility at which they were supposed to be learning.

Stephen learned little from the teachers, and for the past few months, he'd been a cocky, arrogant figure within his advanced classes, which he'd tutored Sarah into.

On this particular day, the teacher had confronted him mid-class in order to ask him for his homework.

"Stephen, for the last time, where is your assignment from page 243?" Ms. Reynolds demanded.

"Hmm… I do recall that this was a…_ home_work assignment. Am I correct in assuming so?" Stephen cocked an eyebrow whilst putting his hand to his chin, many classmates giggled. Stephen's continuous mockery of the teachers was the closest they could come to watching a comedian live for free.

"Yes, it was a homework assignment, give it here."

"But it is a _home_, where _home_work ought to be." Stephen pleaded innocently.

"_Home_work is to be completed at _home_ and turned in at _school._" The teacher growled.

"But then shouldn't it be called _schoolwork-_"

"STEPHEN! For the last time! Turn in your homework, or you shall receive an F!"

"Fine fine… I'll write it out for you." Stephen hopped out of his seat and grabbed a book from under his desk.

"What-re you-?"

Stephen began humming as he grabbed a marker and began to draw on the board, writing with precision, speed, and grace. Twelve questions were formed from the book, each with ample room underneath it for answering.

"Please select a language." Stephen taunted.

"Why you little!"

Stephen snickered, "does not compute, all languages available accessed!" Stephen's arms danced around the board, writing elaborate answers to the questions asked on page 243, in the three different languages Stephen knew.

As the teacher began to chase him around the room, he began to talk to the group.

"Copy them down!" He mock-whispered, "they're all 100 percent correct." He snickered yet again.

The students began to write down answers, but before they got a single one down, or Stephen could've been captured by the teacher, the bell rung, and Stephen was grabbed and ejected from the room a sub-sonic speeds.

"Thanks Sarah." Stephen gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before they both walked to lunch to find Brian.

* * *

Cosmo was lying on her couch at home. Tails wasn't talking to her, and she was too mad at him to apologize. Atop that, she knew that if she tried to apologize, he'd just make some comment about he was right, which Cosmo firmly believed against.

"Why did he have to yell at me?" Cosmo was greatly upset. All her life since she met him, she'd been madly in love with Tails. Few times in her experiences with him had they gotten angry, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling for her to experience. She wilted, and felt horrible inside. The self-guide diminished her self-confidence. Even though she felt she was right, she felt that something else about her had triggered his yelling spree at her.

For the time being, she sat there and moped. Her daughter, grandson, and amazingly worthy son-in-law were gone. Her son was at school, whom she had also accidentally woken up by fighting with Tails. And her husband was mad at her.

Life didn't shine too happily on her today.

* * *

Brian's class was simple and easy. Math was a cinch for the plant/fox, and everyone knew it was because Tails was his father. It ran in his blood, or rather, sap. Brian was very shy, and, like both of his parents, lacked self-esteem without a significant other to make him feel worthy. Highly intelligent for his age and however gifted, he was nothing to himself. Girls didn't show much interest in him, guys could beat him up if they tried, and many called him a freak because of his strange way of being born out of soil.

His parents and now even his sister all told him that one day he'd get a girlfriend, and she'd be wonderful for him, but he was convinced that Sarah was the love of his life, and without her, he was nothing. Depression was how he lived his life, and with angry parents and half his family missing, life was indeed very chaotic.

With math ending, so did school, and he met up with Sarah and the experiment, as Brian rudely mentally called him, to go home. Holding hands with Sarah, and jumping up and down as she ran forwards, Stephen and Brian hitched a quick ride home.

* * *

Tails was sitting at his desk, too shaken to do the paper work he needed to do as a professor. He just sat there, looking at all of the reports in need of being graded, and sighed. With no work getting done, and no lunch eaten, he figured it was a good time to have a snack.

Not feeling like confronting his wife, or even seeing her for a good portion of the day, he opened the window, and flew off to Sonic's house next door to look for some food. His house was filled with healthier stuff, and Sonic, as his carefree style promoted, had more of a variety, not restricted to mainly healthy food choices.

A few moments of snacking on Sonic's food, unguarded as Sonic and Amy were at work, Amy as a chef, and Sonic as a mailman, the trio or children ran into Sonic's house, rushing off to play some video games that Tails and Stephen invented for them.

Tails smirked slightly at the sight, and soon after went into the game room to watch them play.

As usual, the ignored the adult, and continued racing around of virtual cars trying to see who was the better driver. Stephen always won, so he stepped out of the game and sat behind Sarah, giving her a back rub.

Brian was the second best at these games. Sarah was fast in real life, but Brian was a very experienced racer in video games. He figured it was both his dad's logic, and the fact that his hand was real that did it, and that if Sarah had both arms still, she'd probably whoop him.

In reality, however, Sarah couldn't stand a chance. She found that the whirring colors on a video game gave her headaches. Similar things happened to her while she ran in a brightly lit area of town, it would make her dizzy and confused.

As the kids played, and Tails watched from afar, someone rang the doorbell.

Tails' ears perked up as he left the room.

"I've got it." He called, and opened the door.

A GUN agent, smiling so wide that his eyes were closed, stood at the door, a briefcase in his hand.

"Is there a boy named Stephen living here?" His grin never ceased.

"Why do you need him?"

"Could you please fetch him for me? I really want to talk to him."

Tails sighed, and went back into the room.

"Stephen, someone wants to see you." The elastic boy hopped from his seat behind Sarah and moved fluidly towards the door.

"Yes sir?" Stephen's head tilted sideways.

Tails loomed behind him in the background.

"How would you like to work at GUN?" Stephen's eyes got big and bright, a job, a step towards adulthood, was behind offered to him, "We have great need of a man with your intelligence, and we have a lot of money to offer if you join us as an engineer or researcher."

"No." Tails answered for him.

Stephen looked at Tails like he was insane, "wha-"

"Why are you answering for him?"

"Stephen is not interested, please go away." Tails kindly forced the man out the door and locked it.

"What the heck was that about Mr. Prower?" Stephen fumed.

"Listen Stephen, one day you'll thank me for that. GUN is nothing but trouble. Besides… only smart people go out and work for GUN," Tails pointed out the window at the town miles and miles away, "But the smartest," Tails pointed to himself and Stephen, "the smartest go on and do better than GUN, and make fun of them in the process."

Stephen stood there as Tails left, pondering this new information.

_Am I really THAT smart? Could I of all people outwit the government and their agency?_ _Cool…_

Stephen walked back to Sarah, a big grin on his face, teeming with self-confidence.

* * *

Hey all, I need a break. I need to ransack my father's home for anything of value. Make a tribute or something… or maybe just see what he was up to before Julie kicked the bucket.


	3. Time Flies

**Ok, just a few little notices everyone, so I don't have to respond to countless emails and whatnot of people asknig me. I have already created the ending of this story. Granted, I am working on the kinks, but, secretly, many of you are already helping me without even knowing it. Simple questions that I may ask, all of them get used, in relation to Sonic the Hedgehog facts, to just about anything. No, my opinion on the end of the story won't really change. Needless to say, it is cool in my mind, and I hope you all get a thrill from this story, despite the possible brevity at which I write it all up, and the occasional details, skipped. I am sorry, if you happen to come across something, please inform me, I may change it.**

**That being said, I find myself coming to the second point I am using one of these Author's Notes in the begining. This chapter, upon being written, (to those of you who have known me awhile, and have my email on address saw the video of me making the first half of this particular chapter,) made me realize that this story cannot, and will not, be rated T. Granted, this is what I used to have called T, but no longer. For I have reworked my morals and standards due to a certain incident with a lovely lady who goes by the name of Megan, whom I am dearly entrusted to, and who wishes me to be less sexual in the head than I am. While reeducating myself, most of what I once thought was acceptable became the opposite, and I now see the importance of making it Mature rated. The rest of the story will contain occasional swearing, a few sexual scenes, (without, of course, going into a hot love scene, which I forbid to be public, I will leave a note if it is to occur and a lemon created in my spare time,) however, I may include nudity into the story that you are reading. If you feel that a nude scene is coming, and beleive you shall be uncomfortable reading it, I advise you to either skip that section if at all possible.**

**Another thing, about Luna. Please reread SoL(6) chapter 18, or, _read_ Seed of Love Part Six, and it will all make a lot more sense.**

**Also, I might want to take this time to invite two new characters to my array of OC's that many seem to be warmed up to. I hope you accept them as lovingly as you did the late (as of now,) XT-421, and enjoy their appearances while they last. (Please leave comments, so that I may keep or discard them, I may, or may not be swayed by your opinions.)**

**My apologies for the lengthy introduction, I promise there will be fewer in the future.**

* * *

Hmm… isn't it amazing how fast kids grow? I mean, look at myself, a girl physically only 7 years old. And yet, I feel like an aged woman. My father is gone, my mother, non-existent, and my stepmother died with me angry at her. What a way to live.

A lot can happen in 7 years. And five years are close enough to that.

_Five Years Later_

* * *

"Stephen!" Sarah cried, another laser bullet came millimeters from giving her an ear piercing. Her super speed gave her the advantage to dodge, however.

"I am almost there!" Stephen barked back, his now hardened fists digging into another robot, getting closer to his goal.

The two had made another surprise attack into a GUN base, in hopes of getting a Chaos Emerald presumed to be captured there. And Stephen smelled it, they were close.

"Get your rubbery ass over here and take my hand, it is getting too dangerous in here!" Sarah's arm blasted apart another pair of sentries coming to expel them.

"IT IS SO CLOSE SARAH!" Stephen ran forwards a bit more, using his small fingertips to lodge between blocked doors, and got a handle on the lock. With a small twist of his fingers, and a massive bulge of his muscles, he pushed the door open manually.

There, in the middle of the room was a gleaming sky blue beauty, and not the one that was urging him to leave.

Running into the room unquestioningly, Stephen smashed into the class container, and swiped the gem. Instantly, the base's lights shook, and most of the robots stopped functioning.

Sarah ran into the room with bullet precision and speed, looking at him tossing the gem up coolly and calmly.

"See babe? I know what I'm talking abo-" Stephen words were cut short as something approached.

"STEPHEN WATCH OUT!" Sarah screamed as the gem he was juggling was snatched and stolen from him.

The culprit was a massive GUN security robot, designed to prevent intruders from leaving. The guns it held aimed directly at Sarah, trembling with fear at the sight of the machine, waiting to make a move the moment it did.

Stephen's foot was trapped underneath the robot's, and he looked like he was in pain.

"SARAH! HELP ME!" Stephen wailed.

Sarah aimed, jumped, and began to unleash a volley of high speed projectiles at the machine. Spinning around and shooting, the robot became confused. The robot stepped in circles, trying to kill Sarah, which freed Stephen.

Stephen immediately jumped up out of pain and latched onto the mech. Spreading his arms wide, and thus impairing the sentry from shooting, he allowed Sarah to make her move.

Throwing her arm up, then jumping and thrusting her weight down, she formed a homing attack. However, at the last minute, she uncurled and thrust her metallic arm into the core of the robot's processing. The machine fell down useless seconds later.

"Whew." Stephen sighed; his head was almost in the scope of the attack.

_*WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDERS ON LEVEL B-13! SENDING IMMEDIATE BACKUP! ALL PERSONNEL ARE REQUESTED TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTIONS AND EXECUTE DEFENSE MECHANISMS THROUGHOUT THE BASE!*_

"Shit!" Stephen cussed, this was not his day.

Looking at the destroyed mech's weaponry, he smiled.

"Sarah, how much can you push fast?"

"If you are weighing your lightest that is about 15 pounds, and then, if you combine maybe only 50 pounds of metal. Why?"

Stephen presented the project he'd just created in that minor monologue to her, the main gun on the fallen robot attached to the Chaos Emerald as a power source. Then, in front of him, a small anti-gravity lift mounted to the chest plate of the same creature.

Stephen grinned.

"Man I love you." Sarah grabbed a hold of the wide plate, and beganto push.

"Wait for me!" Stephen demanded, hopping aboard.

Sarah's push was tremendous, and fast. She wasn't great at operating things like this, so, the moment she picked up speed, she began to pull it in the same direction, diving in front of it to begin her pull.

The whole time, Stephen went psychotic with the machine gun, laughing as he fired limitless amounts of ammunition at the oncoming heavy class GUN security robots. Robots fell, and more took their places.

In mere minutes, they made it to an elevator shaft, and thus ditched the chariot and gun to climb up to the first floor, Sector Z, as it was dubbed by the corrupt government.

The two worked in perfect unison, Sarah ripped open the door, and Stephen jumped into the shaft, Sarah holding onto his back as he moved.

On the second to last floor, it was a quick extension of the legs to the bottom floor. Once there, Stephen made a springy jump, and began to shoot up the shaft. In their ascension, Sarah noted the oncoming elevator.

"Dang it! How unlucky can we possibly be?!" Stephen sighed miserably, holding his arms out and letting Sarah hold onto his feet. "Do not let go." He cautioned.

The elevator hit him gently, and he pushed up on it after a little bit of giving in. IT was stopped soon, and Sarah began to punch a hole into it with her arm. After hopping into the cab, the people within stared at them with shocked eyes. "Those intruders!"

"Shut it human! We wouldn't be intruders if it weren't for you!" Sarah yelled angrily.

Stephen sighed and began typing into the digital pad, reversing the direction of the elevator.

"One move and you're all dead." Sarah demanded, holding her finger guns at each member of the cab save Stephen and herself.

No one moved, and the elevator began to speed upwards.

"Sarah, get ready, this will take us to the entrance, you know where to go from there."

"Hold on tightly." Sarah cooed quietly, for Stephen to hear only.

"Thank y'all co operation, I'm sure you had as much fun as we did. Sorry 'bout the bots though." The doors opened, and Sarah's foot began to fly. "See y'all next time!" Stephen bid farewell jokingly.

Stephen's fist shattered the main door as Sarah bolted into it. In a second, they were running around in the middle of the desert. Stephen then began to change on Sarah. His body latched onto her tightly, in ways only he was allowed to do. His legs wrapped around hers like snakes, staying loose enough for her to run. Similarly, his arms wrapped around hers, and then back again to tighten around her chest. As she ran, he spoke softly.

"One." Her legs tensed, and buds sprouted from Stephen's back.

"Two." She said, speeding up as fast as she could.

"THREE!" The both shouted. Sarah jumped and Stephen's wings reappeared, catching the jump to jettison them off into the air. Her body relaxed in exhaustion as Stephen jetted off towards their home, taking any and all safety precautions to prevent the location of their base from being located.

"You know, you actually had me convinced, Sarah." Stephen smiled his head now above hers.

"How so?" Sarah sighed.

"I really thought you'd kill those people."

"Threats work. I can't kill a living being, I just can't."

"I would've at LEAST made it hurt…" Stephen sighed, making a massive turn in the airspace.

"Yeah, but you're cruel like that." Sarah breathed in deeply, the fast moving air agitating her nostrils. Stephen's body, upon hearing her sniffle, created a small shield that stopped the wind from hitting her as badly and make his body a bit more aerodynamic. "Thank you." Sarah let loose another exhausted sigh.

"I want to test this one." Stephen said, referring to the jewel in a sack of muscle, gently trapped within him.

"What do you think this Emerald will do?"

"I don't know, increase my flying abilities?" Sarah knew he was smiling.

"Only time will tell…" Sarah looked at the cloud in front of them. "Ah, home again home again…" Obviously, she was not thrilled.

Amidst the cloud, a small platform jutted out of a block of stone. Stephen landed gracefully on this, and unwrapped himself from Sarah. The two entered a tunnel in front of them, and kept walking through the darkness.

Gears pounded, whirred, and clicked behind them, and they found themselves inside a massive courtyard, sunny and serene. It looked peaceful, but one could tell upon further analysis that all inside was far from real. The majority of the plants and dirt were in fact real, but the sun, the walls, and the main tree in the middle was not. It was a home made of a synthetic woody metal.

Pressing a few concealed buttons on the trunk of the tree, a panel slid open, and the duo entered. The moment the door closed, Sarah threw her arms around Stephen, and kissed him gently.

"I love you…" Tears filled within her eyes, this routine was becoming unbearable.

"It will all be over eventually Sarah. Trust me, Tails and I did the calculations." Long ago did Stephen cease calling Tails Mr. Prower. The two had become equals in Stephen's mind.

"I hope so…" Sarah broke the embrace and sped off up a ramp along the inner wall of the tree to their room. Stephen, however, departed to his domain.

It all started three and a half years ago when GUN seized control of the government, with much support of the people as the president they had was bad, and they all believed the normal government corrupt and filled with spies and moles. GUN took this job seriously, and replaced the democracy with a minor dictatorship, promising that all would return to normal once any problems with the government were eliminated.

* * *

People, yeah, I'm back for a small bit. Um… I by chance caught a glimpse of a file on my father's memory banks about a Holocaust. I couldn't believe my ears. I didn't think people could be _that_ bad. Well, what started in Mobius shocked me as well. I had heard of the growing tensions between man and animal before as a teacher. But, when I heard of _this_, I could only feel a sense of pity and desire to stop it. Of course, by the time I came, it was too late…

* * *

GUN had begun to accuse the anthropomorphic creatures of Mobius for all of their problems. They were the moles and leaks in the government selling secret information out to other countries, and the source of all corruption.

GUN took action. First, they stripped rights and privileges from most non-human mobians. Then, as time went on, and a few people, who really were problematic, and non-human, were found, violence broke out. People began to riot against anthros, forcing them out of homes and beating them. All sorts of unspeakable crimes were committed, and many were killed.

That was three years ago.

That was when GUN began to rally with all human forces across the globe to eradicate the problem.

Anthros were killed relentlessly throughout the world. Many fled to forests and deserted islands, hoping not to be found, and a few stayed where they were, praying that they wouldn't be accused of anything.

A few, however, resisted. The old gang of Freedom Fighters was reformed. In the mass genocides that took place without warning, many key members of the group were killed, Sally Acorn included.

Sonic and Tails reformed their tight bond, and fled to Tails' workshop. When other anthros began to crowd into Tails' workshop, Knuckles and his Master Emerald included, GUN encroached on the land above. This provoked Stephen and Tails, the two most intelligent beings on the planet, to build something new.

Based on the Castle of Laputa from one of his bedtime stories, or classroom, Stephen couldn't remember, Stephen built a machine with Tails around the outsides of the Workshop. Hooked to the Master Emerald, and filled with soil and other needs for farming, the Workshop was ready to fly.** (Quasar: Laputa: Castle in the Sky belongs to Hayao Miyazaki.)**

But, the GUN troops remained above it, preventing flight. Shadow, secretly mourning over the disappearance of his friend Rouge, was the Workshop's hero of the day. He, along with Sonic, Tails, and the rest of the gang, fought off a bulk of the GUN agents, most of which were robots, and crippled the imposing force, causing them to retreat, regroup, and rework their assault style.

By the time they had surrounded the Workshop's top, it fortress was gone and airborne without a trace, other than a massive hole in the ground.

Stephen and Tails worked up a cloaking system around the workshop, and Stephen earned his own little base.

Over time, base life began to wear on people. With the cloak up, Stephen and Tails did not risk using equipment to monitor the ground, so they sent out scouts daily to see what was going on. They worked hard, getting food, or stealing it, and farming the Workshops agricultural platform, where Cosmo always fretted about how much the plants didn't like being cooped up, thus pushing her further away from Tails.

On the topics of relationships, Cosmo and Tails never got over their Daisy incident, and that always put a thorn in both of their sides. It erupted only once after it began, and that was when the mass genocide occurred, in which Daisy, Brunis, and Nick Ketuno were almost certainly slaughtered, along with many people's friends.

Tails always wondered about his childhood friend Cream, and her boyfriend Rocky, but he squelched his thinking, knowing it would only lead him to despair. She was working at a hospital, and if the bodies of the almost dead didn't horrify her into hiding, then the machete raised above a rioter's head would've killed her for sure.

Amy constantly feared for Sonic, who maintained his happy-go-lucky personality, and was sure, always, that the war would one day end, and he and Amy could go running across the fields for fun again. They constantly worried about Sarah though. The war caused her to pick up some unhealthy habits. Stephen's love for her never faltered, but that didn't stop her from attempting suicide, a quick escape from the seemingly inevitable death.

She shot a bullet into her chest, and hoped it would kill her like it did in some movies, but she only injured her lung, which Stephen and Amy found a replacement for with some excess skin of Stephen, their natural cure all.

Since then, she still dropped into depression sometimes, but Stephen and her family were there to get her out. This time, few suicidal thoughts entered her head.

Stephen had adapted to war-life the most smoothly, and acted about as cool as Sonic these days. He was an expert at battle, and loved to get beat around and scare people, as he only felt pain, but wouldn't ever actually get damaged. He'd once even taken a rocket to the face, and minutes later, he jumped up and began doing a little dance, chanting "I get hit with a rocket and lived! Now! I dance! La cucaracha! La cucaracha!"

Stephen also had found that he was affected by chaos emeralds in the strangest way imaginable. Per each Emerald, he found out that he was given control of certain powers. Some were simple, as he had found out. In the three they had collected, now four, they had Shadow's green one, which allowed Stephen control over some plant growth, including mind controlling Cosmo, which he kindly refrained from doing, most of the time, the sea blue one, which gave him the ability to meld in with water, and divide into copies and puddles, then magically reform, and then the red one, which made him burn into a ball of fire, and having total control over that fire.

He was one of the most useful people they had at the workshop, not even getting into his IQ. But the heart and soul of the base were not his own, nor the small village that lived within it.

Stephen leaned back in his domelike chair, and kicked his feet up with his hands behind his head. He reached into his chest, the small pocket, and tossed out the sky blue gem, letting it bounce once or twice on his metal, yet wood-appearing, desk and stared it down.

"I detect a presence… Master?" An oily, serving voice questioned into the room.

A slick grin appeared on Stephen's face. "Lucien, I thought I told you to stop appearing at random." Stephen scolded jokingly.

"The next time you arrive without checking in and thus signifying that you are not yet deceased, I will keep that in mind when I intrude upon my own birthplace, master." Lucien explained, concern thick within his voice.

A small, green dog in green tuxedo and a green tie, seeming to be in his 30's, appeared on Stephen's desk, flickering with the lights that formed him.

"Where is your sister?" Stephen questioned the dog.

Lucien looked away with a look on his face that indicated a rotten smell.

Stephen's grin only widened.

"Now now, you were both made from the same program copied over. You were created from my accidental spilling of coffee onto the computer, and Sylvia came around when I was frustrated and kicked the computer, as it was too stupid to understand my commands."

"I do not think I requested a repeat of the horrid information regarding my birth, master." Lucien grumbled.

It was all true. Stephen had created two artificial intelligences. It was a difficult process, and rarely executed properly. Dr. Eggman did it a few times, making but most of his robots had other duties that required more attention than thinking. Stephen's creations were built to think and evolve, well, they could, and that was good enough for him.

Most of the AIs out there could only think a certain way, and only within their parameters. Stephen's however, were capable of doing a lot more. Together, Lucien and Sylvia governed the floating base. Sylvia typically was in charge of people and directing them throughout the fortress, a tour guide, or a flight attendant, they were her best jobs. Lucien, however, was in charge of civil defense and weapons onboard the workshop. His goal was to prevent GUN from ever finding their way into the workshop, or, and Stephen frequently referred to it as, Laputa.

GUN knew of Lucien very well, and they were most upset with his level of intelligent. Mr. Coffee-stain, as Stephen sometimes teased him of being, had frequently hacked his way into GUN navigation systems onboard ships that tried to find Laputa. The little accidental ability to think saved his life frequently. GUN built a variety of anti-virus programs, all with the sole purpose of destroying Lucien, and possibly Sylvia. And with Stephen's help, the trio always managed to get by without being harmed or in Stephen's case detected.

The greatest irony, both Sylvia and Lucien were born from the program Stephen originally started to predict the future. The plan came to him as he made it, and eventually, it became perfectly flawed. Then, Stephen found himself the father figure to these computer programs.

"STEPHEN!" A cheery voice rocked the chair Stephen was sitting in.

"Oh may mercy be on my program…" Lucien whispered.

A rosy pink cat hopped onto the desk, appearing out of thin air. The girl was in her mid to late teen years, dressed in a skimpy red dress that came up just above her mid-thigh, and a shirt that came above her belly button, slightly covered in fur.

"LUCIEN! OH HOW WONDERFUL! We NEVER get to spend that much time together, kind of inappropriate seeing as we're brother and sister and whatnot. And STEPHEN! How good it is to see that you're alive and well! I heard rumors that you and Sarah got killed! And I also heard rumors that you made love to her outside the barriers of this fortress, but I'll ignore that one as my sensors tell me you're still a virgin and are getting embarrassed by something- HOLY CRAP THAT'S ME! I'm SOOOOOO sorry!" Her figure suddenly turned to Lucien, looking away from her and Stephen drawing patterns in the wall with his eyes. "YOU! WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP ME FROM MAKING STEPHEN EMBARRASSED?! It is ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"Sylvia, do I need to add that ice to your Central Process Unit to simulate you taking a chill pill again?"

"NONONONONONO! I am very fine Stephen, that won't be necessary." Sylvia giggled cutely, calming right down.

"Very good. Now, as you may see, I've got a cute little trinket I picked up, do you guys want to monitor my results and catalogue them for me?"

"Affirmative, master. I look forwards to the hours in intrigue and occupation."

"Yes of course! Duh!" Sylvia twirled her fingers around dumbly as if Stephen had asked the obvious, he did.

"Great. Now, watch carefully." Stephen stood in the center of his spacious room and stretched his arm over to the Chaos Emerald.

The powers took a while to occur within him, they always did. And he had to mentally tap into the powers of the Emerald. He closed his eyes as his grasp tightened around the light blue gem.

Stephen opened his eyes and look around. Nothing seemed different.

_Dang it! Five minutes of time wasted! Great… well, it's back to- wait, why can't I see my arm?_

"Lucien, Sylvia, can you see me?"

"Yes, but you no longer emit any form of visible light, only heat waves and radiation from the emerald."

"So, optically speaking… I'm-"

"Translucent to the maximum degree."

"Invisible."

All of their voices were firing off at the same time, it was impossible to tell who said what when. They all had roughly the same IQ though; Stephen's leading by just a small fraction.

"Sweet, hey guys, go back to your stations, I'm going to test this bad boy skill out!" Stephen licked his lips and sent himself off.

Sylvia and Lucien looked at each other. This was one of the moments that they were in agreement for once. You see, being an AI that could THINK, they didn't HAVE to listen to orders. They liked to, it made them feel complete. But, in not doing so, they were capable of feeling a bit naughty and bad, which made them feel something, more than they normally ever felt.

Both Lucien and Sylvia, began to trace Stephen's movements throughout the base, following him where they could. Stephen was always a source of devious, daring, and devilishly cool fun.


	4. Welcome to Hell

Stephen snuck around the area of the base, completely invisible to the naked eye. His body hadn't changed a bit. Like his predecessor, Shadow, he was immortal, or so, he had come to imagine. Sarah was unimaginably upset about this. She wanted Stephen, in her own selfish desires to grow up with her, and to become a tall, strong, handsome man for her, one with a rugged abdomen, and bulging muscles all around.

Stephen knew this, and did his best to shape his body accordingly to her desires. He could become anything she wanted him to be, so he was all of them.

As for Sarah, well, had Stephen a sexual appetite, Sarah would constantly have found herself under Stephen's lustful eyes. She was gorgeous, in her own way. Her quills grew out longer, however, they stayed up. This was much to her dismay, as she did want to look a bit like a lady sometimes, and her quills couldn't fall down if she wanted them to.

Her body had the curves her mother had, and she felt a bit happier about that. She now had a more mature look about her. Stephen had offered to give her arm an upgrade when the war began, giving her the ability to use her arm as a gun, and she enjoyed that a bit. Unlike her father, she liked to use technology a bit more. Each finger within her arm was now a gun, if she wanted it to be. Her breasts came out a bit now, which thrilled her to no end, this was the one thing that led to the milking incident so long ago.

One thing about Sarah disturbed Stephen, however. And that was the female hedgehog's desires. Sarah wanted a big hunky man, Stephen gave that to her when he could mentally focus on it. But, some of the things Sarah did to Stephen bothered him. Stephen found that, in her sleep, Sarah occasionally would grab Stephen and place him in some disturbing positions that made him retreat slightly. He understood mammalian reproduction, but he was against letting himself indulge in such activities. He still wasn't sure if he himself could procreate, and if he could do that, well, he never wanted to think about the abominations that could be formed from the chaos gene within him.

Sarah also found out that she was capable of chaos control, which thrilled her. But, with GUN's tracking systems on each and every Chaos Emerald, she couldn't use it very often, if at all.

And now Stephen stalked the halls, headed towards his girlfriend's room, almost positive that he would scare the crap out of her.

As he got to the room, he slid under the door, sky blue Emerald melting right with him. Entering Sarah's spacious, silver and light-blue room, he began to look around. She wasn't there. Then, something caught his eye.

Sarah's blue skirt and blue top were hanging over a door along with her green bra and panties.

Stephen's eyes bulged and his smirk increased tenfold. She was in the bathroom.

"Oh yeah…" He mouthed, sneaking off into the bathroom where he heard the water running. He may not indulge in mammalian reproduction, but that never meant he couldn't like the thought of trying it. He never would, he just couldn't bear the thought of hurting Sarah with his super-charged muscles or having to face off against Mr. and Mrs. Rose, as they would surely beat his rubbery ass if they ever figured how he'd made love to her.

So, he'd just be a peeping tom, no harm in that.

Sarah was taking a bath, and bubbles were everywhere. Of course, in the privacy of her own room, she didn't restrict herself to a curtain, which made Stephen's job all the more easier. Upon glancing at her, disappointment filled him; the bubbles covering her completely.

Stephen let loose a short, quiet chuckle, and quickly recalled it. All of his attempts foiled at her bubbles. The Ultimate Lifeform was stopped by bubbles. It was hysterical to him.

So he sat down gently on the side of the tub, his eyes absorbing every square inch of the body he could see. Occasionally she'd move, letting Stephen see a glimpse of her fair organs, but not for too long ever.

_Yeah, this is MY girlfriend. She is hot, beautiful, can fire a gun, can use chaos control, and can run practically the speed of sound. Not to mention, she loves me more than she loves herself. How awesome is that?_ Stephen smiled, it was all true.

Suddenly an urge swept over him, and he didn't like it one bit. He stood up suddenly, eye twitching, and his arms lengthened and sharpened again. Before another step was taken, Stephen's eye's raged, and the swords retreated, along with his second personality.

_Damn, I thought I had that under control? Oh well… I stopped it, that's all that matters._

Sarah's bubbles began to dissipate soon after Stephen took his seat again. She was sleeping, or at least in a trancelike rest. It pleased Stephen to know end that Sarah was moaning his name, and it was quite likely that she was finding whatever she was thinking quite erotic. Sarah's eyes opened a few moments after Stephen swore he saw her hand dart down towards her groin. Sarah _never_ liked the thought of playing with herself. It was vile, in her mind, and it was probably what woke her up.

Now wide awake, Sarah began to drain the water, and used the curtain around her, readying herself for a small shower. Stephen took the opportunity to sneak himself into her shower, there was hardly enough room for him and her, though.

Stephen watched, awing at Sarah's perfection. It was wrong, yes, but they had been a couple longer than some humans were married, and he knew Sarah enough to guess that she would probably have wanted him to see her naked and in the shower.

After she was done rinsing off, making a bunch of strange faces at the pleasure of the warm water rinsing her off, she grabbed a towel, wrapped herself gently, and opened the curtain, at which point Stephen had to duck.

This was when Stephen decided to make his move.

Sarah dropped her towel for a brief moment, stomping her feet on it immaturely to get some of the water off of her. Stephen snuck up behind her and hugged her, making sure that her breasts were grabbed in the process.

Sarah leaped upwards into the air, petrified. She spun around and saw no one there.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit… There is no fricking way that was imagined…" Sarah covered her face and shivered.

Stephen made the move again, but this time, wrapped his arms around her back, ever so gently, and began to lower her.

"EEK!" Sarah jolted, but when she felt the caring, gentle touch of this ghost on her, she calmed down, and began to blush a bit.

With one arm around her upper back, and one on her lower back, Stephen lowered her to nearly parallel to the floor. Sweetly, he kissed her passionately, his hands gently massaging areas of her back and tail areas. Sarah moaned and kissed back, being treated to this pleasure.

A minute or so after it began, Stephen pulled her back up, and hugged her wet body, absorbing some and most of the wet water for her. Her body, which brushing up against his, registered the touch of him.

"I love you Sarah…" Stephen whispered, becoming visible by dropping the Chaos Emerald on the towel.

"You peeping tom… I love you too." Sarah chided jokingly; she was definitely proud of her boyfriend for doing something of sexual nature to her.

"Now, do you want to have me leave you alone while you get dressed? Or would you mind my eyes lavishing your body some more?" Stephen grinned expectantly.

"Well, it is always nice to have someone help put my bra on. Granted, I could do it, but, when you could do it for me, why not take the opportunity?"

Stephen shrugged, and, after Sarah was dry, helped her get dressed again. The moment her arm was reattached, however, she sighed sadly, her skirt and top not yet on.

"Sarah?" Stephen looked concerned.

"Oh, it's nothing…" Sarah sighed yet again, getting dressed the rest of the way.

Stephen knew what her problem was, but it was an awkward conversation to strike with her. Sarah wanted Stephen to make love to her more than anything in the world. And Stephen wanted the near opposite. The argument was the same everytime, and always ended badly.

The two ventured out to the courtyard to get a bite to eat. Meals within Laputa were no longer served at lunch, dinner, and breakfast. They were served when you got up, were done with your first task of the day, and then after some fun, other otherwise typically non-productive activity. People figured that one day they would die, so they'd rather be well fed than not at all.

Stephen and Sarah had their task in the middle of the day, so, this 'lunch' for there was being served around two in the afternoon.

"Tails, please, you have to refresh the dirt, the plants cannot survive on the same minerals year after year." Cosmo urged.

"Stephen and I created fertilizers that replenish the nutrients in the soil, the plants have nothing to worry about."

"They still don't like it."

"Then they'll get by."

"Of course you say that, you don't have to listen to them."

Sarah just sighed, and pulled Stephen along.

"Mrs. Prower, the next time I go down on a mission, I'll make sure to bring back some dirt for you, one handful at a time." Stephen joked.

"Well at least that's more than this oaf is doing." Old married couples were interesting people. However, they weren't that old.

Sarah and Stephen ignored them, and wandered off to eat their 'lunch.'

* * *

Brian was on scout duty with a little boy named Cal. He was his little buddy, and one of his better friends. Cal was a bull, and he was around ten years old. Many thought it was ridiculous to have him fight in a war, let alone go on a mission in one, but if they heard his story, having been raised by humans for two and a half years, and then finding out that they were the ones that killed his parents, anyone would easily see how he fit into a war.

Bold and courageous, Cal was Brian's opposite, and thus, best friend. He wasn't smart, he was hugely powerful with his raw power, for his size, and absolutely belligerent in the war, often urging Stephen and Brian's dad to make a bomb to drop on all of the people to get rid of them.

He was funny, to a degree, which was also an opposite of Brian. But they both had one thing in common, they both felt like outcasts amongst the people of Laputa. Brian was half alien, and Cal was raised by humans, which counted as half alien nowadays.

The two sat in trees, bundles of food and trinkets in large backpacks behind them. Cal had gloves on, ready to beat the snot out of anything that got in their way, and Brian had his own secret tools that he'd invented with his intelligence.

Brian looked at Cal, and Cal looked back, their eyes communicated while they mouths could not.

GUN police-class robots had spotted them, and were closing in on their location.

Brian's look was that of determination. Cal's was of crazed energy.

"Three." They mouthed.

"Two."

"One."

"GO!" They both shouted as they dropped down, taking the mechanisms by surprise.

A single laser crossed Cal's vision to send him into a rage.

"You mess the bull, you get the horns metal mofo! HOO HAH!" Cal screamed as he charged the metal policeman, crushing him into scrap metal.

Brian let Cal be, at least, once he saw the other policemen. These were not GUN robots. They were GUN _agents, _real, human police officers. Brian could not kill a living being. It went against what his mother and father taught him, and made him no better than the monsters that killed him.

And so, he was prepared for them.

Reaching to his belt, he quickly unveiled a small grated ball. He tossed it into the air, whilst getting out a small ray gun for the robots assailing him and Cal. The ball sprayed a blue mist, which, once the humans, who shot few bullets as they were still shocked from seeing actual anthropomorphic creatures, now rare, only stood there, trying to regain their bearings.

The humans inhaled the blue mist, and their guns dropped instantly, and they froze, falling down, trying desperately to recover their weapons.

Cal, once done with mauling another robot, began to charge the humans. One looked up with what little energy he had as Cal lifted his foot up above the man's head. And he was shocked when Brian pulled Cal back.

"Take their guns, we could use them." The human looked up at Brian as the strange plant/fox boy took his gun.

"What? You thought we were all cold, heartless, mindless beasts? Think again. You're the primitive barbarians slaughtering an entire race here. Remember that. I don't kill, and few of my friends do either. Consider yourself lucky that you figured this out now. See you later pal." Brian patted the human's cheek and grabbed another gun, strapping each to his backpack.

"Well, c'mon Cal, we've got to get around to the landing zone." Brian instructed as the two jogged off.

They ran along the edge of the forest smoothly and relatively calmly. Brian was accustomed to fear, and was always on a bit of alert when on a mission. However, he felt more at ease on this path. He used to run along a path near there on his way to school so many years ago. He knew it had crumbled away, bombed in the middle of summer school during the riots. All of them died there, and it was rumored that the corpses were never taken away. That was not something he wanted to see.

Along his path, he noticed something strange, a small stone hut covered in moss, hardly noticeable to the naked eye.

"Cal, do you see that?"

"What dude?" Cal looked ahead at the place Brian was pointing to, and squinted, nothing was there.

"That stone hut covered in those plants?"

"No… Dude, are you alright?"

"Bah!" Brian ended it as he strode over to prove his point.

Brian stood atop the hut and looked at Cal, who was still squinting.

"OH! Lookie that! I'd've never seen that…"

No Mobian would've, only one highly trained or sensitive to plant life could've seen the hut at a glance.

"What's inside? It isn't very big." Cal was expected to reveal the obvious.

Brian shrugged and hopped down from the roof of the small dome. The door was similar to an outhouse door, wooden, and with a tiny, crescent moon cut out of it. It had a sturdy handle, and when Brian opened it, it was hard to budge. The vines had locked it into place.

"Please, grow elsewhere…" He mumbled to the vines, in a tongue foreign to Cal. The plants slowly retreated, and the handle clinked down.

"Dude, what the heck was that? That weird voice?"

"You know very well I can talk to plants." Brain explained, pushing the door open.

A waft of stagnant, dead air wiped over the two of them. It was similar to the smell of a crypt. Everything inside this small home was dusty and filled with cobwebs. A small desk was in a corner, an unused lamplight over it. Another light with a small fan was above all, clinging to the ceiling. Cockroaches skittered away at the approach of the first visitor in years.

A small bookshelf was on the other side of a puny bed, too small to have fit Cal or Brian, made from the stone of the wall was left in neat orderly fashion, with something on top of that.

Brian stepped forwards, gravitated to the shiny purple block on the bed. It was fairly large, and jagged. He stood next to the bed and leaned down, trying to see what the crystal was exactly.

Amazingly, he saw a face staring back at him.

A diminutive, brown wolf, around the age of fifteen, lay within the amethyst glass. Her eyes were closed, as was her mouth, and her hands were folded over her lap. She wore a small purple skirt, and a matching vest above that.

Brian said nothing as he stared.

"Man! She is HOT!" The ten year old gawked at her form.

"She's…" Brian closed his mouth and swallowed. "Wow," he mouthed.

* * *

Time froze, Brian began to dream in place. The girl and him stood in the middle of a white paradise, holding hands.

"What's your name?" He asked ever so sweetly.

The girl smiled, her eyes still closed, and she cuddled with him whilst standing.

* * *

Brian snapped out of it suddenly, and noticed the crystal was beginning to change as he placed a hand on it.

A ripple shot forth from where his hand fell on the crystal's surface. As it gleamed, it began to fade, and, eventually, vanished entirely. Brian's hand fell through the invisible barrier, and landed on the girl's filled out form, particularly, her left breast.

"Smooth move Brian. Smooth." Cal smiled, looking at the girl with appreciative eyes.

Brian quickly retreated, and the girl began to rouse.

"Quasar," Her voice was like a small brook, bubbly and crystal clear, "you hit me so hard…" It was slow, but it made sense.

Her brown scrunched as she rubbed her eyes.

The moment her violet eyes opened, and viewed the two boys in front of her, she shrunk back into her bed.

"EEK! G-get out of my house you two! I'll-I'll call the cops!" The girl squeaked fiercely.

"Tough luck on that one toots, the cops are all out to kill us anyways!" Cal smirked.

"So I'm sure that they'll love to arrest you!" She fumed, glaring at them from under her covers.

"No, my friend means, ma'am, that the cops are out to kill everyone yourself included." Brian tried to be polite.

"Wait, what? No, I don't care, get out of my house now!" She demanded, he eyes pulsing with purple light.

Cal and Brian were launched backwards, and then got up.

"No, listen, if you plan on staying here, you are going to die." Brian explain blandly, hiding his emotions.

"I don't care, get out of my house!" She demanded.

"Did you hear that?" A voice called from outside.

"Oh. Shit." Cal whispered.

"Who is that?" The girl demanded.

Brian placed his hand gently over her mouth, eyes stricken with fear.

The girl ripped the hand off of her, "Help! My house is being invaded by perverts!"

"Over there! It's a house covered in vines! They're in there!"

"DOUBLE SHIT!" Cal screamed.

"Do you have a mortar? It sounded like some furries."

"TRIPLE SHIT!" Cal yelled as the sound of reloading artillery filled the air.

"Crap!" Brian growled, grabbing the girl with one arm as Cal burst from the door, both running at full speed.

A small light came from the sky and the home that the girl had lived in from who knows how long exploded into thousands of shards of stone.

"I just got that house!" She sobbed. Brian and Cal jumped hard, and began to climb the trees.

"LET GO OF ME!" The girl demanded, wrestling free from Brian's grasp, jumping down to meet the policemen with open arms.

All of the officers appeared into the small clearing around the girl.

"I am SO glad to see you guys, there are these two guys who just came into my house, and tried to do heaven-knows what to me. I know you're out to get them, but I don't think that blowing up my house was very kind…"

Brian watched her, mortified with the obvious truth that she was going to be shot dead. A feeling in his gut twisted like no other, the thought of seeing her dead body, and cradling it in his arms horrified him.

The men loaded their weapons, and the girl took a step back, frightened.

"FIRE!"

All of the men shot their weaponry at the girl, who was tackled at the last possible moment by Brian. Cal leaped down onto some more of their machines, and broke the officers' guns, while Brian hopped up and launched another paralyzing spray-ball at them.

The girl just cringed in fear, in fetal position, in the bush she landed in. She had seen the bullet aimed for her head, and that boy pushed her away from it. Brian continued to dodge the bullets as they became infrequent due to the falling men, stricken from paralysis.

"Now ma'am. Are you going to come with us, or wait for more of them to come down and kill you?" Brian looked her in the eyes, sternly, trying to hide all feeling to her, it was rather embarrassing.

The girl looked at his arm outstretched to her, offering to pull her up off of the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she accepted the arm, and was pulled up. She did not hesitate to wrap her arms around the boy in a strong, tight hug for comfort.

Brian was shocked at this, but his wrapped his arms around her too, giving her some temporary comfort.

"What the hell happened to this place? Is this some horrible nightmare?"

"No, this is the real world, I'm afraid." Brian broke the hug, and motioned for the wolf to follow him and his friend.

"Where are we going?" The girl asked slightly sweetly as she followed the two males she once tried to force out of her house.

"Cal and I have some modified Extreme Gear that are too heavy to carry with us hidden not too far from here… I think we might be able to get up to base with you on mine… if you don't mind that is…"

"Wait, what? Up?"

"Our base floats, you know? To keep it hidden from GUN?" Cal felt that this girl was of below average intelligence.

"Here we are!" Brian exclaimed, hopping on his Extreme Gear, offering his hand to the girl again.

Cal was already on his, and was circling the other two.

"Cal… I don't think the two of us can make it up there…" Brian sighed, feeling his activated board touch the ground with the girl and himself atop it.

"I see… shall I have Stephen send us a board?"

"Or come down with a second, but yes please…" Brian sighed, turning off his board and sitting down in a bush.

Cal zoomed, off, smiling wickedly at Brian as the girl sat down next to him partially hiding.

"Ok, now there is something I've been meaning to ask you…" Brian began, glancing at the girl.

"Yeah?"

"Well, a lot of things, first of all being, you mentioned a girl's name that I'm slightly familiar with. Quasar."

"That little girl who's daughter to a metal robot named XT-421?"

"Yeah, that's the one, how do you know her? And why did you say she hit you hard?"

"Well..." the girl struggled to remember, "I remember after coming home from school one day, I was all upset about my love life with Brunis, and asked XT how long it was going to be before he fulfilled his-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… Brunis? Brunis the Wolf? Brunis Ketuno?" Brian's eye practically twitched.

"You know him?" the girl smiled.

"Yeah I know him. He's my brother in law!"

"WHAT!? How?"

"He married my sister six years ago!"

"SIX YEARS AGO?! HOLY CRAP! What the hell happened to me? Six years?!" The girl held her head in pain, she had a massive headache.

"Are you ok? What's wrong?"

"I am Luna the Wolf, the girl that your brother-in-law lived with for almost 6 years before deciding to come back to Daisy… OH MY GOSH! SIX YEARS?! Did Quasar hit me that hard?"

"Ok, calm down, relax. I had a hunch something wasn't right when I first saw you. You're probably suffering from a bit of amnesia, or some form of mental lapse."

"Whoa now, I know when my mind isn't working mister, mister… hey, what is your name anyways?"

"Brian Prower. I am Daisy's little brother."

"Little! Hah! You're like the same age as that plant girl!"

"Daisy is 21 years old right now, and is raising a child with Brunis, at least… if they survived the riots…"

"WHAT?!" Luna was overwhelmed. Brian felt an urge to touch her hand, trying to convey a sense of care for her. He wanted to protect her, either that, or just have an excuse to touch her delicate hand.

"Hey, calm down, ok? We're going to figure all of this out when we get back to base.

"No… I want to know now… what happened… how did my life get flipped like this?" Nothing came from either of their mouths while Luna reexamined her demand. "Ok, maybe not that extreme… but, can you tell me what has happened to the world at least?" She giggled in stark contrast to being in a practical warzone.

_Her laugh!_ A pit formed in Brian's stomach, _and her smile… she is so cute… _

"Well, um…" Brian was trying his best not to blush, "in a nutshell," he became more serious, "in a nutshell… GUN began to hate animals, and began to kill them all off in attempts to purge the planet. Few countries are safe, as more and more are falling under the rule and influence. So, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cosmo, Shadow, Knuckles, and the next generation, Stephen, Sarah, and myself, have all joined forces to help save what is left of the animals of Mobius, and also push back GUN until surrendering, and giving back rights to anthros."

"So, the government I thought was safe, is now trying to kill me?" Luna looked hopelessly at Brian.

"That's the gist of it." Brian nodded, his heart felt uplifted as he tried to make her laugh.

"Crap! Why the hell does this happen to me of all people?"

_SHIT! I just made her feel worse!_

"Well, it isn't too bad, living in the base. We're up so high, no one can hurt us, let alone see us." Brian continued to reassure her.

"I'm afraid of heights!" Luna wailed.

_IS THERE NO END TO MY FAILURE?!_

"But we have an artificial area within the base that makes it look bright and sunny and grassy."

"But does it have the smell of an outdoorsy place?"

"Yeah…" Brian said hesitantly, "My mom and I handle the live plants there."

"Cool. I've never met a guy who was good with plants. Brunis was always skittish around them, but now I can kind of see how he drew the resemblance between them and Daisy… By the way, if you're Daisy's brother, how do you have fox-like characteristics?"

"Tails is my dad. Cosmo is my mom." Brian shrugged.

"So, wait, does this mean you're a…"

_Please don't say freak…_

"A what?"

"A hybrid?"

_She called me my official biological species! Thank heavens!_

"Ye-yeah… I am a hybrid. I am part plant, part fox. Thank you…" He put a hand near his mouth, it slipped out.

"Thank you for what?"

"For not calling me a freak. Everyone else in the world calls me that… except my parents… and with them fighting all the time… and growing… apart, they are focusing more on themselves than others recently. And I-I don't know… I guess I needed the reassurance."

"Oh, don't mention it." Luna shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "So, like, those plants on your head, are they there for looks? Do they do something? Or are they from the ground?"

"Well, they're… they kind of are like both a part of me and parasites, at the same time. They give me a bit of extra energy, and I give them nutrients. However, they are a part of me, as they have no voice, and can feel through them… it is weird. But, to better answer your question, there are a few more things about them that I don't know yet… supposedly, I hormones can be emitted from them."

"Hormones?"

"Yeah, like, ones when I'm in love, or when I am really upset, like a vent to the outside world… I think…"

"Oh… interesting…" Luna's head fell for a moment, and she twitched.

"Luna, are you ok?"

"Hey, um… no hard feelings about beating you out of my house, ok? And… also getting us all killed like… twice. I thought that you two were there to…" She gulped, "I have never really had too many positive experiences with guys before, especially tough-looking ones like yourself and your partner."

Brian again tried to hide his blush. _She thinks I'm tough!_

"No problem," Brian gave out a light chuckle. "Though I haven't the slightest idea as to where you got the impression that I looked tough."

"Oh, I don't really know… when some guy is standing over you like he's a skyscraper, and you're as small as I am, you get the impression that they'e a monster."

"You're not that short, it's just that-"

"That YOU are freakishly tall, I've heard it a thousand times…" Luna rolled her eyes.

"No," Brian chuckled, "I was going to say that…" Brian's tone got softer, "I think you're more than meets the eye here…" He was getting mushy on her.

_Stop it! She might not like it._

Luna cocked an eyebrow, "Oh? And how's that?"

"I-erm… uh… like… like when I first saw you, you were covered in that purple crystal, or when Cal and I were throw back by some force when you told us to move, I think that had to do with you a bit…"

"I'm a bit of a telekinetic… I have some psychic powers…"

"Psychic powers? Like… moving things with your mind?"

Luna nodded.

"OH MY GOSH! THAT IS SO COOL!" Brian was really interested now, anomalies were one of his favorite research topics. He faced her and stared at her, looking at every possible difference from the norm he could find, not getting close.

"Wow, you're weird." Luna laughed. Brian recoiled.

"Huh?" He felt a bit hurt.

"Oh, not like that silly, it is kind of cute, the way you get all interested in me the moment you hear of my powers."

Brian couldn't stop the blush this time, so he hid it.

"Ha," Brian chuckled lightly, trying to shrug off the compliment made by this amazingly cute girl.

Luna rolled her eyes, what she meant by this, Brian had little idea.

"So uh… where do you think you're going to sleep in the base?" Brian asked, begging for her to spend more time with him.

"Uh…" Luna's eyes grew to a tremendous size as she scooted away from him. "I think I'd sleep in the lobby, if that's ok with you…"

"But there are nice beds in each of our rooms, it would be a shame to put one to waste."

"Please, don't try to entice me into going to bed with you." Luna shook a bit, "I'm NOT going to."

"I understand." Brian sighed, letting the distance between the two of them on the rock behind the bushes.

"Yeah, listen, it's nothing personal, but, I'm not going to sleep in the same bed as any guy if I hardly know them."

"I'm not like the other guys…" Brian spoke partly to himself, "I would-"

"Listen, I've heard of that type too. You're the slightly nerdy, 'knightly' guy, aren't you? Being chivalrous to me doesn't entitle you to have my body either. I can tell you like me, and I'm sorry, but, you're not much different than other guys. You all work the same. Brunis, he was an exception, but he happened to be in love with another girl. You all do something to woo us, and then BLAM, strait to the bed you go. No, I'm not working that way."

"But-" Brian recoiled his thoughts, and one of his father's came into his head. _There comes a time in a man's life when he learns that it is best to shut up, and let the woman win, rather than making an issue out of it._

_Boy,_ Brian thought. _That really is true…_ His eyes opened a bit wider with newfound enlightenment, and just let loose a sigh.

He was letting Luna walk all over him, hardly putting up a fight. He was used to it.

Luna looked at him expectantly, frowning slightly.

"Well?" She asked.

"Well what?"

"You're _supposed_ to argue back how you're so much better than other people in stark comparison to what I declared." She instructed.

A wry smiled snaked its way onto Brian's mouth.

"You want me to argue back?" He cocked an eyebrow, smirking more.

"Yeah, you're _supposed _to. That's how it all works! What the hell is going on in that head of yours?"

"Well, a wise saying from my father, before he got mad at my mother."

"And that is?" Luna asked, only Brian seemed to notice how much closer she was getting.

"Ah… hold on a second…" Brian found the words in his head, "There comes a time in a man's life when he learns that it is best to shut up, and let the woman win, rather than making an issue out of it."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Luna looked at him like he had the plague.

Brian laughed wildly now, and Luna started to laugh with him. Brian was weird in her eyes, for the good reason.

_*SNAP*_

The laughing ceased.

"GET THEM!" A human yelled, as a covert group of humans arms with knives lunged at them. They were not wearing GUN emblems.

They were old neighbors that lived in Station Square.

"EEK!" Luna screeched as she cringed backwards, only to find another group of humans who jumped out of the bushes to assault her.

Brian immediately began to shove them backwards, trying to reach for his belt. The humans all began to tackle the two of them, pushing them down, and trying to stick them with knives and other sharp objects. Brian spoke, or rather, cursed, in his plant-speak, and a few vines managed to miraculously trip a few of the mob members.

Suddenly, however, amidst the violence, someone jammed a knife into Luna's chest.

"IIIIIIIYAAAA!" She yelped loudly, Brian was wild-eyed, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRG!" She screamed again, reopening her eyes, now gleaming with purple power.

Everything around her except for plants, Brian not included, was thrown away from her, giving her a ten foot radius around her. Brian was quick to his feet, and looked at Luna. She needed medical attention as soon as possible. He reached for his belt, and pulled out a small, white pebble, and threw it on the ground hard. The leaves on his head reacted quickly to shield his eyes.

Everyone who was quick enough to get up was immediately blinded. Brian took this opportunity to throw a paralyzing spray into the air. He made it plant-friendly, so he was unaffected by it. Everything in the immediate area was placed under a stasis to last for at least half a day, including Luna.

"Oh I hope you're ok…" He whimpered, picking her up with his stuff.

He rushed into the open, where his buddy Cal was descending from the sky, ever so gracefully without a backpack.

"CAL! CAL! WE NEED YOUR HELP!" He screamed at the bull.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't think pregnancy happened that fast…" The uneducated boy laughed as he continued his slow decent, other boards in hand.

"NOT FUNNY! SHE NEEDS MEDICAL HELP! SHE'S BEEN KNIFED!"

"Are you serious?" The boy dropped down the 20 foot drop with his gear still on. "How did you let this happen?"

"I didn't, they just kind of jumped up behind us! Now hurry! Take my stuff and get it to base, I'm going to get her up there as soon as I can!"

"Are you going to be the one to perform mouth to mouth rescipation, or… retication? Or… you know what I mean."

"Shut the hell up Cal! SHE NEEDS HELP!"

For the first time, Cal saw the knife in her chest and he cringed. The knife went straight through her shirt, and seemed to go right into an area beneath her breasts. Brian had her in his arms bridal style as he mounted the Extreme Gear, and launched himself upwards, straight for the base.

He looked down tenderly at the she-wolf. "Don't worry Luna, you're going to be alright." She moaned unintelligibly. "I'll watch over you… I'll protect you…" He kissed the top of her head, praying to some deity that she'd not remember any of this, and sped upwards with intense speed.

Cal looked up at them as they sped off, leaving him behind to pick up after Brian. He strapped on the backpack that the fox-plant dropped in his haste. Buckling it on tightly, he began to smile at Brian's obvious adoration of this little wolf, and cackled manically for how much fun he could torment his 'big brother' for it.

"What was it?" He wondered, leaning on his board in the ground.

He snapped his fingers loudly then.

"I've got it! Resuscitation! Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation!" He lay on the ground and waved his hand over his head, speaking in a girly voice then. "Oh, I feel faint! I think I'm going to die! Brian, come save me!"

Then he hopped up and looked down where he once was, "have no fear my darling, I know mouth to mouth." Then he went back to being the girl, "oh Brian, OH!" and then began an intense make out session with himself. Then he slipped and hit the board.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Brian and Wolfgirl, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage! AHAHAHAHAHA! He won't hear the end of it!" Cal snickered as he zoomed off back to base, cackling the whole way.


	5. Omen of Authority

Sarah was now away from Stephen, spending quality time away from her boyfriend, which, according to the mysteriously vanished XT-421, was a healthy thing for both of them. This gave Stephen some time to relax in his tower. The dark tube consisted of three levels, a basement meant for projects, computer work, and crazy new inventions, the first floor, which was designed for sleeping and washing, fairly small for the chronic insomniac, an upper floor for executing his biggest project ever, and star gazing, which was easy to do naturally as his tower was at the top of the base.

Stephen was presently in the basement, monitoring the base for the robots while they were off doing other menial tasks that Stephen would've found boring. People-watching was fun for him.

However, when the small Gear of Brian Prower was picked up into his scanners, notably slower and alone, it rose alarm within him. _Hmm… He either is carrying someone, or is hurt very badly… if he was carrying someone, then they would also be hurt very badly… Cal told me that they found someone else… but maybe that is Cal- oh, another one? Dang it… Someone's hurt._

"Attention," he spoke into the speakers, bellowing in the base, "Can I have Medical Chief Amy Rose to the main lobby with a stretcher? We have an incoming casualty, possibly severe." He spoke it with the utmost calmness, then tapped his metal, yet wood-like, desk.

"Lucien!" He called urgently and sternly, the green dog appeared on the desk, standing at attention, "I am placing you in charge of my station while I oversee Brian's catch of the day, understood?"

"Understood, master." Lucien dissipated into thin air. With that, Stephen hopped up and rushed out of his strange home.

Brian had Luna carefully cradled as he ran through the air pressure system that helped keep the base afloat. He cared of only one thing, the safety of the practical stranger.

Again he slipped into a deluded dream. Brian was standing over the grave of a small female wolf, crying.

And another. Luna was horribly wounded by this knife and was in a wheelchair, inhibited from doing anything. Brian had to kneel down to give her a hug.

And yet another. Luna could've been treated perfectly if Brian got there in time, and was in under medication and constant watch by doctors, and resented Brian for not getting there fast enough.

This woke him from his fantasies, and he began running fast, really fast.

"HELP! HELP! SHE NEEDS A DOCTOR!" Brian screamed the second he made it into the light.

A small medical unit was already ready at the exit. Amy Rose, along with Stephen and an aide were there, moderate surgical equipment ready. Brian's parents stood by, worriedly, they thought it was their son.

"Brian! Relax, place her on the bed, quickly." Amy instructed calmly, immediately beginning analysis.

"The knife went in there." Brian pointed at the bloodstain above her gut. _How obvious, of course she knows that!_

"At what angle?"

Brian paused for a moment, "around a 27 degree angle, I think…" Brian thought it out for a few moments.

"So it isn't very deep?"

"I'm not sure… it seemed to be a large knife."

"Doctor, do you wish for me to get an inside look for us?" Stephen grabbed a small device as Amy injected an IV into Luna's arm. With new technologies invented by Brian and Tails, the blood type of a person could be found out in seconds.

"Yes please." Amy replied, strapping on gloves.

Stephen's skin was rubber, and had absolutely no holes in it if he willed it not to, which in the case, was important. His hand, along with the microscopic camera attached to the rolling television, slid easily into the girl's gut, inspecting the blade.

"Ooh, lookie that, it doesn't seem to have punctured anything but skin… it completely missed her intestines, and almost hit the pancreas… she's a damn lucky girl." Stephen exclaimed, assessing the damage himself.

"I'm the doctor, not you." Amy smiled behind her mask.

"Then what do you think?" The aide questioned.

"It didn't do much damage, it hardly even went in… if we pull the knife out, and let it heal naturally, she'll probably be fine." Amy thoughtfully deduced.

Stephen slid out of the girl's wound, and walked off to wash his arm, leaving Amy to gently open the wound. Blood gushed out, and Brian tensed. His blood wasn't red at all. It was much more yellow-green than crimson. Not to mention he was all over this girl.

"Should we move her to an isolated area?" The aide asked.

"My room is pretty clean… fresh air, few airborne pathogens… I have air purifiers and I don't leave much in the air." Brian pointed to the plants on his head.

"So, you want her in your room?" Brian nodded his head as Amy began to remove the items attached to the wolf, the blood seemed to be getting less.

Cosmo stepped forwards at this point. "Brian, I don't think this is such a good idea…" Unaware of who the girl was, or knowing her son all that well.

"Mom, it is the _least_ I can do for her, she's hurt." He countered sympathetically.

"Fine… fine, you're a big boy now… you can make some decisions on your own…" Cosmo declared, retreating to her quarters for the night. Cal had just arrived as Amy's aide began to stitch Luna up, in moments she was done.

"Hey bro! How's it hangin'?" He looked at Luna. "Ah, not too good I see… ah, don't worry, she'll get better, and she'll be all romantical on you." Cal's vocabulary was still being formed.

Cal began one of his acts. "Oh Brian, thank you for saving me! Mua mua." Cal imitated the kissing noise and began another self makeout.

"Gah! Not in public you fiend! Someone might-"

"Be watching?" Stephen smirked widely, he saw the whole thing.

"Yeah… that…" Stephen and Brian were not the best of friends. Brian still was upset about Sarah choosing Stephen over him, and, well, the bitter resentment remained living up until now.

"Well, you saw it, I got to get inside her first." Stephen made a small chuckle.

"Why you-!" Brian lunged at Stephen and threw a punch into his face.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cal and Stephen laughed horribly at him.

Brian's face turned beat red as he fled to his room, with the excuse of having to make sure it was clean. When he got there, he was shocked. _When did my room get so messy?_ His eye twitched, there was clothing strewn about the room as if a hurricane struck. Small tinkers of his own imagination littered the ground at which he was to walk.

"EEK!" He yelped, hurrying to tidy the room up, however infinitesimal the amount.

Mere minutes after he had begun his room cleaning procedures, Amy, Stephen, the aide, and Cal, all walked into the room with Luna on the stretcher, now ready to be moved.

"You know how to deal with her? And how to call me if you need help, right?"

"Yeah, of course. I study medical sciences, I know a bit." Brian was truthful, he specialized at combing plants and synthetics to apply them to animals, or humans, or sometimes even other plants.

"Ok then…" Amy left Brian to the wolf girl; Stephen lingered for a moment, glancing between Brian and the girl.

"Just remember Stephen, I can watch the entire place if I truly want to." Stephen smirked wickedly.

"Why you!" Brian growled, glaring at him, "not if I sever the right wires in that box."

"In which case I'll investigate the room myself as a precaution. So, if I could have your permission… can I have you sign this?" Stephen produced a piece of paper from his chest, he was always storing things in there.

"Why?" Brian asked, taking the paper.

"So, when you royally make love to her like I know you want to, I can film it and make millions as the first porn film with a alien hybrid and an innocent wolf!" Stephen smiled as if this were normal.

"STEPHEN! I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!" Brian charged him. It was out of character for the calm, quiet pharmacist, but Stephen was hitting new buttons on his panel now, and he loved the reactions.

"Good luck with her Brian." Cal said sincerely, and then added in whisper, "you know what I mean." His eyebrows jumped, and Brian fumed.

"YOU TOO?! GAH!" Brian yelped, only to get yelled at by his neighbor in the complex.

"CUT IT OUT YOU DAMN FREAK!" Mr. Johnson wasn't very friendly to him.

"Ok Mr. Johnson." It was a bully he'd have to deal with until the war was over.

Brian continued his small tidying, as admired Luna from his stance, constantly moving throughout the room. He stood near the bed as he neared finishing, and reached his hand over her head. It wavered for a moment, gently hovering over her fur, and then recoiled again.

This process repeated as his mind raged. _She would hate me if I did this…_

_But she won't know I did it, she is knocked out cold…_

_She would still hate me, and it is immoral to touch someone, in anyway, without medical permits, if they are unconscious._

_A little touch wouldn't hurt her… besides, she's pretty._

_NO NO NO! That is wrong!_

_Do it!_

_Don't do it!_

Brian was disturbed. Finally, his hand gently touched a small follicle of hair on Luna's head. Thin and short, like the rest of her, it electrified him like an arcing wire. His hand recoiled from the sharp experience, but then slowly came back for a second round.

This time, he cupped her head ever so gracefully, stroking her hair very slowly and carefully, reveling in the feeling it gave him. He patted her head once, and then looked her down, examining her.

"She is so beautiful…" Brian sighed. _She doesn't like me… not like this… They're all wrong… I don't want to screw her… why… why would they think…? She's s-so beautiful…_

Brian whimpered heavily at his pain, physical and emotional, at the thought of her leaving him, which she was bound to do the moment she regained consciousness. Brian sadly left the room.

* * *

"Poor Brian!" Stephen cackled, watching the room from the security-cam's point of view. "At least he touched her. That'll be something to tell her when she gets up."

"Now… onto my pet project!" Stephen smiled as he wandered up to the top of his tower.

It was almost that time of night when he could get away with this. The clouds above the base were gone, and Laputa had perfectly, as it always did late in the night, positioned itself underneath the ARK's orbital position.

At one point in the war, Stephen had fixed the ARK with a small, hardly noticeable transmitter that wouldn't only let Laputa find it, but also, allow his project to be used without GUN being able to trace it, as he was sure GUN knew it was him.

Stephen grabbed the disk that XT had given him some odd 6 or 7 years ago, and placed it, along with a few other disks he'd collected or made, and placed them out on a table. Activating a few panels, and inserting all of the disks, a screen appeared, and the ground rose to the glass observatory above, looking straight into the space above.

Stephen took a moment to take in the sight, and then pressed a small button on the desk in front of him. A clock appeared, and he read the time from it aloud.

"10:44 PM 49 seconds. I have T-9 left." Stephen pressed another button on the clock, and it morphed quickly into a microphone. It was now he was thankful for having a soundproof room.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen! It is a fair evening tonight if you were to be graced with my view of the stars, and the time is 10:45 PM, right on the button. As always, StDJ is ready to rock your world. Ravers jump, and couples slide, to this wonderful musical ride. All will dance, and many shall try, to flow with the rhythm and last the night! Again, I hold copyrights to these tracks, however, as I own the original copies, I do advise all to not steal my work, but I know you will anyways, so why bother?" Stephen spoke in a radio DJ voice into the mike, and small video cameras that he'd placed throughout his missions across the world, clubs, and bars, and stadiums, began to give him feedback everywhere on the surface.

"Alright, so on this smooth occasion, how about a caller? My number, as always, is 784-74-36, it is toll free."

Instantly, a phone was ringing in Stephen's office. "Hello, StDJ calling from a spaceship near you! Who is this?"

"OMG!" The girl shrieked into the phone, "I'm on international radio! OH MY GOSH!"

"That you are, OMG," Stephen addressed the girl, "So, OMG, what kind of song for what kind of occasion?"

"Rachael, by the way," The girl paused, "how about a swingy song for me and my boyfriend?"

"How old are you, OMG, Rachael by the way?" Stephen loved being annoying.

"I'm sixteen. I want a nice song to dance with my boyfriend. Preferably, something that will make us get close."

"Closer?" Stephen paused, searching the songs for the right dancing song. "Swingy, upbeat?"

"Yeah!"

"Close, like, chest to chest, parade around the room or in place?"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"Then honey, StDJ got you covered." Stephen selected a small text on the screen.

"The song, is called Rhythm of the Night, by Tokeo Bliss. My apologies if I begin to sing along."

The beat began to pump through the speakers throughout the world, and Stephen watched as people, humans, began to dance to his tunes.

This was his pet project, unifying the world through music. As a voice, no one could've guessed he was not human, and through his music, people danced all night at parties, clubs, colleges, anywhere. It was his proof that, people could be so prejudice as to not care the actual personality of someone, but base them solely on looks. It was a horrible truth, but Stephen learned how to beat the system, the radio.

No one ever it he Stephen who did it, not even the members of the base he co-owned. He scrambled his own voice by distorting his neck when he spoke, confusing everyone. Mixed with the static of radio waves, it was the perfect disguise.

Stephen let the music play as he danced in his chair, looking at the people and the stars. He continued his show until 3AM, the time when he went to bed in Sarah's room.

* * *

Um, he y'all, sorry 'bout being late... I've been working with the State to get licensed to drive my hotshot car so I won't get pulled over anymore for driving illegally... *insert thumbs up here* And yeah I've been going through some mood swings of late... depressed, happy, angry, you get the picture (I'm still deciding if I want this little blurb to be from Quasar or the Author, ah who cares, it is just used to place some space in between two different periods of the story...) The next lil' bit will occur in the morning, ok? There...

* * *

GUN worked their butts off all day and night with their projects. The people wanted no more anthros, so they'd eradicate the anthros. With Sonic and his gang, however, they were presented with a problem.

Sonic was an old hero, so were Tails, and Knuckles, and Amy, and even their old top agent, Shadow. They were super powered creatures that went into hiding somewhere around Tails' hypothetical workshop, and vanished from existence. Occasionally, they'd reappear for a brief moment, stealing some food from their stores, causing havoc, supposedly stealing and abducting people.

The criminals posed an ongoing threat until proven dead.

GUN had a few advantages over Tails, and the new boy, Stephen, however. GUN had teamed up with Dr. DR, and his enterprises. Doctor Damian Robotnik, now with his title replenished, worked for the good of all mankind to eradicate the remaining anthropomorphic creatures in the world of Mobius. With his vast army of robots, now clad in GUN emblems, when the two worked together, they created a massive force, one not to lose to anything.

Sonic and his gang, however, persisted to get by.

So, GUN's new Commander and Chief, Omen Oregano, had to improvise. The man was only about 20, and fairly charismatic. He was 16 when his father, leader of GUN at the time, left him the reigns. GUN had one other upper hand that they could use to beat Sonic and his Freedom Fighters, other than Dr. DR. Damian had been thwarted before, as was his father before him, so, the Robotnik family wasn't very reliable.** (A/N: This character is the product between myself and my girlfriend Megan, I beleive she deserves some credit for saving my butt with this kick-ass name.)**

Richard the Cat, and his funding helped a bit with overseas dealings, despite how horribly they treated the anthro, they promised him the capture of his Daisy Ketuno, and he continued to fund them. Beyond that, though, GUN controlled most of the money in their country, so, Richard was slightly expendable.

GUN's true form of superiority came in the form of technology.

True, they didn't have the smarter brains. With the boisterous Damian Robotnik, fully filling his father's shoes in ego, and relatively dull minded morons for scientists, they didn't have much against Miles Tails Prower, and the now infamous Stephen. But they had a rare piece of alien artificial intelligence, and they were slowly extracting its secrets.

Five and a half years ago, in the murky depths of the Great Ocean, a fallen object from space was recovered. It was roughly the shape of a man, but it was made of metal, and clearly an automation of possible intelligence. No one had any idea what it was at all. Winged and clad in dark plum armor, the creature's twisted body and face led everyone to believe whatever sent it into its terror-stricken state before deactivation must have been of massive proportions.

GUN, with all their resources could not penetrate the armor casing housing the automaton's inner workings. It was made of a foreign, super-metal that was practically impervious to heat and tear, and would not break, even dent, if bombed.

They wanted this creature to work for them, but it would not respond to any stimuli, and it seemed to be shut down and out of power. They had power rods stuck into what they believed to be its main battery, also a foreign device, seeming to be similar to a Chaos Emerald, in any hopes of imbuing energy into the robot.

However, what they could copy from it, they did. GUN had added an arsenal of new, advanced weaponry, much more lethal in accuracy and power to most GUN squadrons. Also, many new vehicles and hovercraft were created using the design of the fallen robot. Compact tools to new forms of lightweight armor, this robot helped them start winning the war against anthros, and they wished to have a powerful storm to power the creature.

Only once did they ever get a response from the creature, and that was during a thunderstorm.

It was a year or two ago, as GUN had placed their man base in a fair weather region. A positively charged lightning bolt came down on the lighting rod hooked to the metallic creature's power core, and after the flash, they saw a green light wash over its eyes, and a strange vocal command emanated from its metal lips.

"Keionata, belidash delnaor! Ir muk dis san." It was hardly audible, but in a language none of them could understand.

This proved all of GUN's theories on it being alive to some degree, and they sought to restore it so that they could control it.

Omen Oregano had already made sure that when it awoke, if it awoke, it would obey his command by the creation of a restraining bolt placed within its CPU, which, as soon as they could reach it, they would install it.

The young GUN commander watched as an army, co-created by the extracted data from the alien robot, Dr. Damian, Richard the Cat's funds, and the limitless potential of GUN.

"So I see you like how I've applied the new lasers." Damian, in a hover-chair, floated nearby the commander.

"Yes. Please, don't hover so close, I like my space." Omen responded coldly.

"Fine, fine." The rotund doctor leaned away, and made another quiet comment.

"I am curious," Damian began, "have you found-"

"Listen you fat oaf, you may be a genius, but you work for me, you got that? We haven't found the damn fox or his hedgehog friend, nor have we seen-"

"Commander! You'd better see this!" A video screen appear out of the railing the commander was looking over, another technological feat obtained by the robot.

As the screen solidified, the image became clear. It was of a small town a few hundred miles away from the base.

"Why are you showing me this vid-"

Suddenly on the screen, a satellite image of the town, zoomed in to eye level, a blue blur appeared.

"Ha-ha!" The hedgehog joyously called as he hopped around the heads of the robots, making others miss and shoot at their own platoon. However armed, they were still too slow, mentally and physically, to match Sonic the Hedgehog.

"C'mon Eggy! I know you've got better toys than that."

Damian growled. "DON'T CALL ME EGGY!" He roared, "I'll be right back." The hover chair flew off, and Sonic continued to destroy GUN military machines, never tiring, and flawlessly performing his acrobatics.

A huge mech appeared behind Sonic, and lifted a foot, "DON'T CALL ME EGGY YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Damian stomped down on the little pest, and Sonic easily dodged him. Sonic made a rude gesture towards the new Eggman, and hopped away, making the scientist give chase, GUN robots being crushed in the process.

"Blast it Damian! Control yourself!" Owen demanded at the screen.

Sonic led Damian into the middle of the town, where, after destroying a few more factories, Sonic began to attack back, brutally destroying the innards of the machine.

Eventually, Damian ripped the hedgehog away from him, and had it in the grasp of the metal machine he commandeered.

"I'll destroy you you filthy animal!" Damian growled, a rotary saw edging closer to the hedgehog's demise.

Sonic didn't look worried at all.

"SONIC!" A not-so youthful voice called in the distance.

The most famous side-kick in all of Mobius decided to show up too. Donning his traditional blue and yellow Tornado, Miles 'Tails' Prower dove in, destroying the arm of Damian's mech. In seconds, Sonic was free.

"Fox-boy! Twerp, die!" Damian unloaded a volley of missiles at the fighter-jet, and of course, he missed the sonic-plane.

Now, with Damian distracted, Sonic was capable of properly infiltrating, and destroying, the inside of the robot.

In a puff of smoke, Damian's robot was felled, and Sonic ran off, a sack of metals, food, and any other kind of luxury he could find on his back.

He gave a high-five to his best friend, and boarded the plane, as they both jetted off at speeds greater than the speed of sound, disappearing with a minor cloaking device.

"Damn it!" Omen growled.

Damian, black with exhaust, came waddling through the air in his over chair just then.

"I thought I had him this time…"

"No, you let him get away you fat, worthless piece of crap!" Omen yelled, storming off to his room. "If this robot wakes up… I'm going to use its power to destroy Damian and all of the anthropomorphic creatures in this world!" Omen then fell onto his bed, completely asleep. Despite all of the medication in the world, the great GUN leader could not avoid his random bouts of dissatisfying sleep.


	6. Potential Problems

Luna awoke in a strange bed. Flowers were everywhere, and the beautiful stench of pollen and nectar filled the air. Groggily, she tried to replay the events that got her here.

She was asking XT to hook her up with a loved one, then was clobbered by a little girl. She passed out, then awoke to a thin fox with flowers strewn across his body and a strange smell about him. She tried to get him out, then GUN attack because she found out she was 6 years into the future.

"Strange dream…" Luna mumbled, stretching in her bed. That's when she realized she was only in her undergarments. She thought nothing much of this, as that was often how she slept, but, it was a bit strange, something more must've happened.

A voice entered her head. _"Don't worry Luna; you're going to be alright._"

Luna held her head and tried to remember what happened. She was out cold from something. A medicine? Why? Because she was hurt. Where? Luna felt her stomach and found a patch of skin, not fur, skin. And in the middle of the _skin_ she felt a bump, stitched up. _Oh dear… I'm in some demented hospital of flowers!_ Luna tried to get up, but her side ached like crazy.

A few clicks and beeps were heard outside, and a door slid open rapidly.

When the boy who walked in laid eyes on Luna, covers down at her belly, and in her undergarments, the glass watering can he had in his hands dropped and shattered into pieces.

Eyes bulging, he spun around, babbling incoherently, "Ohmygoshlunaiamsosorrypleaseforgivemeplease!"

"GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Luna demanded.

The boy straightened up then and spun around to face her, no one told him what to do with _his_ room.

"Excuse me?" He got defensive, "I made this room with my father for myself. When you got knifed, and needed a bed to stay on to clear the only stretcher we have, I offered to give you my bed out of the kindness of my heart. I had to sleep on the floor because of you, Luna. And don't go thinking this is your room, we could share it if you really wanted to, but I'm not sleeping on the floor again." The boy's glance dropped down to her purple bra, and he tried not to ogle.

"STOP LOOKING AT ME BRIAN!"

"Sorry," he apologized, facing the opposite direction. _Should I comment on that pretty bra? It did fit her style and fur well… no… she'd yell at me…_

"Lemme guess, while I was here, you stared at my breasts and all that jazz?"

"No ma'am. I did nothing of the sort. Nothing I wouldn't do to you if you could've beaten the crap out of me." Brian answered calmly.

"Really?" Luna wasn't satisfied.

"May I turn around now? Or are you still indecent? Your jacket, along with your skirt, are in the wash."

"I see… will I get them back soon?"

"Yes, but, not for a few hours." Brian answered, turning around to a tucked-in Luna.

"So how will I move around?"

"You're still healing, I don't advise you go anywhere. Brian walked up to the bedside, taking a seat on his bed.

"Can you please explain why?" Her voice edgier with every inch closer Brian got.

"Explain to me this, have you tried to move yet?"

"No… but-"

Brian's finger came up, ushering her to stop making noise, "And you should continue not to. Your side was fairly hurt, and it may be best to not move for a bit. Just a few more hours, ok?"

Luna thought up an excuse to move around, "Well, I'm hungry."

"So I'll get you something to eat, ok? Anything in particular?"

"If you're so chivalrous, why not you get me a little of everything?" Luna tempted.

"Will do." Brian wanted to say her name, but couldn't.

Brian opened his door and rushing over to him was Stephen, a cart of food in tow.

"I'm doing you a favor!" Stephen said, rushing to Brian, giving him the cart.

"Thank you?" Brian didn't mean for it to be a question.

Stephen lingered at the side of the doorway as Brian walked back in with the cart of food.

"Holy crap! You hardly left the room!"

"Yeah, a friend of mine," a small sinuous whip nailed him in the back, "OW!"

"You got it yourself dumbo!" Stephen angrily whispered.

"My friend came rushing in with this cart of food. I would've gotten you some," Brian glared back at the silver creation.

Stephen walked into the room arms up in surrender, "But I have been watching the whole situation unfold via security cameras." Stephen smiled and waved, "Hi."

Luna smiled back, "That's sweet of you. Who are you now?"

"I am Stephen, co-captain of Laputa, the wonderous castle that you happen to be residing in presently. I helped Tails build this place from his old Workshop."

"I see… you must be really smart." Luna looked at this figure, he was rather handsome, and seemed like a cool guy.

"The IQ doesn't get lower, only higher." Stephen cocked an eyebrow at the girl, who seemed to doubt him.

"I am smart too…" Brian muttered quietly so that no one could hear.

"Well now, how did you get here?" Stephen began, he was rather curious about people's stories before coming to his haven. "And what were you doing before you got here?"

"I was rescued by Brian over there; he already acquainted himself with me. And before I got here… I don't really know… apparently, I was placed under a crystal of sorts that made me sleep for 6 years…"

"Wait, what?" Stephen looked befuddled.

"I was knocked upside the head, the last thing I knew. Then, I woke up as if nothing had changed, with this hooligan hover over my body on my bed at home."

"So… you didn't age during that time?"

"I still have my youth if I did!"

"So, you traveled through time! Y-You could prove all of my theories in travling through space time! You were place in some bubble of sorts! OH MY GOSH!" Stephen bolted up to Luna and picked her up into a massive hug, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!" The creation was obviously overjoyed.

Luna looked at him dumbly; apparently, he already had a thing for her.

Stephen loosened her and got a look at her, in her undergarments.

"Oh, nice set of colors, they match you very well." Stephen chuckled lightly, he could never llet off that he was embarrassed.

"Stephen." The voice was cold and sharp.

Luna looked at the hedgehog girl in the doorway, glaring at the handsome man in the middle of the room, not Brian. Then, Luna cowered as the eyes came onto her.

"Sarah, I was just using this chance to get acquainted with…"

He hadn't even asked her name.

"Luna." Luna answered.

"Luna, I was getting to know Luna."

A metal finger on the girl's arm beckoned Stephen closer as she muttered. "Sure you were, _honey_." The girl, now known as Sarah to Luna, accentuated the last word sharply at Luna.

Stephen left the room willingly, and the moment it closed, Luna stood, looking around, rather confused.

Brian hopped up, his eyes shut tight, and guided Luna to the bed, his arms on her shoulders. The moment he tucked her in, he opened his eyes, and looked at her; she was still confused.

"Yes, he's a taken man. That girl, Sarah, my first crush, I really don't like Stephen, he always seemed to outdo me in everything I try…" Brian realized what he was saying, and shut up.

"So… how long has it been going on?" Luna was hopeful that it would end soon, and she didn't hide her anticipation.

"Like… 6 years. Those nutty kids were ten when they first met, and Sarah refuses to let other girls near him, which goes against Stephen's flirty, cocky personality. They may not act like a couple, but the bond between those two is so strong… I swear they can communicate via telepathy by now…"

Luna ignored Brian the moment he started talking science and romance between those two, and soon found herself drifting off to sleep to the monologue, a student in a classroom.

* * *

"Who was that, huh?" Sarah had Stephen pinned against a wall. _No one touches my man._

"A newcomer. That was Luna, she was the one rescued by Brian." Stephen was calm, but slightly cautious. Sarah was easily swayed by any signs of emotion on his face. If he was to act like he wanted to get away, that meant that he was hiding something that he didn't want her to find. If he was scared, then she'd think he was in fact doing something. And if he was in a seductive mode, then there was something that he was covering up. Sarah didn't want to be like this, but it was her mother within her.

"And why were you two on the bed with her in her panties and brassiere?" Sarah growled viciously.

"Sarah," Stephen placed his arms around her shoulders, looking at her sternly, "She was in surgery the night before, well, kind of, and they removed all but her undies to get the knife out. Her clothes, her only clothes, are, were, bloody and stained, and are being washed as we speak in the main washroom." Sarah was still unconvinced as she looked helplessly into Stephen's eyes, a worried friend. "There is nothing going on between me and that wolf.

"I'm sorry Stephen…" Stephen gave her a hug as Sarah exhaled unevenly, scared out of her wits.

"It's fine, Sarah," Stephen said with a chuckle, "I'm never leaving you, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I did."

"I'm not going to let that girl out of my sights though…" Sarah's voice became slightly guttural and harsh.

"Now now, play nice Sarah." Stephen smiled wildly.

"I STILL GOT IT!" A cheerful voice was heard as a familiar blue blur rushed into the center of the courtyard bustling with activity.

A boulder rolled over, and, rising from the depths, a golden fox with a grin on his face, arose next to the hedgehog, equally pleased.

"We're still an unbreakable bond." Sonic laughed, throwing his sack of goods on the floor.

"I know, we beat the crap out of Eggman and everything! It was just like the good old times…"

"JUST like the good old times…" If Stephen couldn't brighten moods, these two long-time friends could. Sonic's bright smiled always managed to bring a cheer into a person's heart, no matter how troubled they may have been.

Sonic held his back shortly after however, and sighed. "Man though, I am getting old… I can't move as fluidly as I like to anymore…"

"You're still faster than everyone else on the ground though." Tails pointed out, Cosmo rolling her eyes at him from the outside of the crowd.

"Yeah, but Little Miss Sarah can almost beat daddy dearest in a race now." Sonic pointed to his daughter, whom he was constantly proud of.

A blush later, Sarah responded, "Thanks dad." She gave him a big hug and Sonic looked down at her a big smile on his face.

"What's troubling you?" His frown vanished as he probed her eyes.

"Just, some issues with the new girl here…" Sonic looked over at Stephen, who shrugged.

"Stephen! Don't go touching any girls! As your surrogate father this is my command to you!" Sonic joked at Stephen.

The grey metamorphic creature looked at him in salute. "Sir yes sir!" Making Sonic and everyone else laugh a bit, "One question, sir!"

"Permission to speak freely granted!"

"Does this include your own daughter, sir?"

Sonic's face flushed, and Sarah's turned beat red.

Through a hand in his face, Sonic spoke, "As long as it is not sexual, I'm fine with it."

The moment Sonic loosened his grip on his daughter, she fled, extremely embarrassed. The crowd dissipated and Stephen approached the aging hero.

"Don't worry, I don't do that sort of stuff." Stephen assured.

"I hope not… I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but my daughter getting pregnant is not in my, yours, hers, of this sanctuary's, best interest. I mean- wait, can you even impregnate her?"

"Yeah, I can, I've done a few tests on stuff of the sort, I could as easily as anyone else could. Again, don't worry. Believe it or not, your daughter is the one who is trying to lure me into the bed… it just isn't a good idea… yet…"

"Get married first, that's all I ask, ok?" Sonic demanded calmly.

"As you wish, Mr. Rose."

"And as for that, the moment you see an end to this war, go get her, ok? I've got a bet with my wife that you're going to propose before the war ends, and she doesn't believe me."

"Wait, who said anything about the M word?" Stephen looked befuddled.

"There's no way you can't not have plans to marry her after so many years."

"I'm just joshing with you mate. I'll think about it, ok? It isn't very often that a dad asks a potential son-in-law to hurry up on the marriage." Stephen burst into giggles, he was another first, he thought, as he ventured to go find Sarah.

* * *

Cal loathed humans. They killed his parents, made a pet of him, beat him from birth, and tried to keep him alive. He long wished they'd have just killed him. He wouldn't have to deal with such memories. He remembered being three, and hearing gunshots at his beloved druidic parents, and then having to watch them fall down into the ground, their eyes spurting blood and heads leaking cranial fluid, and having to deal with the fear of humans the moment they looked at him and tried to get him to plow their fields for them. He sat in his small room, a dart board with his "parents" placed over the bull's-eye, the humans that spat on his dinner in front of him and then fed him forcibly.

He'd never forgive humanity. His attitude of a comedian, from what he was told, was brought forth as a defense mechanism to cope with the pain of his parents.

He only had five ways to relieve himself of stress. One was beating things up, which he was profusely good at, being a bull. The second was through using the dartboard. A third was sleeping. A fourth was eating, another thing he was ridiculously good at. The final one, however, was revealing a side that he never showed in public, playing his piano.

He was a force to be reckoned with on the keys and notes. Most of the songs he composed were grim and filled with hate, and they could be heard easily through the song. But a select few were calm, peaceful, and hopeful. He never thought himself any good, but Stephen knew different, he'd never say anything, but he spied frequently on the guests of his castle, making sure everything was in order. Cal dreamed of being a pianist, despite his brutish nature, but was never good enough in his own eyes to perform in front of an audience.

Presently, he stared at the cloth covering his baby grand, which he had stolen from another room within the area. He shouldn't have stolen it, but he loved his music, besides, it was abandoned in a storage room.

Internally, though he'd never admit it openly, he was truly happy for his friend Brian, who found him in the first place. Brian deserved a lot more than he was given. He lived in his father's shadow, and hadn't the great mind to compete. The plant-fox was brilliant, in his own field, but it wasn't as glorious to the rest of the world that pharmacology was the boy's forte. And with his chronic depression, Cal had secretly predicted the poor guy, whom he idolized, to never have a girlfriend.

When Luna was spotted however, Brian smiled inwardly so brightly he almost forgot why he hated humans. Luna was beautiful, and Brian, however inexperienced, knew that Brian was to fall in love with her if he hadn't already. Cal wasn't sure if Luna returned any feelings, but he wanted to know.

He teased them, but had a good feeling that they may make it together one day. And to see Brian all flustered and blushing how he did made Cal smile. They were brothers, as much as he didn't want to admit it, and he felt bonded to Brian, in a very emotional way. If Brian was happy, Cal would mimic that feeling.

Cal lay back on the bed and sighed. He had to find a new partner for a mission today. Brian was tending to Luna, and thus, the plant-fox didn't have to go on a mission. Brian wasn't so lucky, so he'd have to go back down in a party or something.

"Who is going to form a party to go down? Ugh… Brian… why'd you have to go all moony-eyed for Luna? Heh, moony… Luna… hee hee…" Cal laughed as he got up and left his room in search of another meal.

* * *

GUN was making some strange advances on the alien robot. They had, for a long time, known that it required energy to run, and, after seeing that a lightning bolt, a massive power surge, only jolted its heart, they would need a super massive source of energy to power the creature, which they were willing to build.

Dr. Damian Robotnik had recently been looking into nuclear power as an alternative to Chaos Emeralds, and he was thrilled with the results. GUN refused to make it a weapon, as it would be too powerful and ruin too much land and pollute their air, but agreed to use it as a generator.

With the robot unlocked from its contorted state, they had it fixed into a giant X, with limbs hooked up to braces fueling it with raw electricity, hoping it would stir. With the robot unapproachable, many watched and waited for signs of life as energy pooled into the creature.

To this day, no signs of life had been seen.

Omen woke to a clanging on his door; another wave of sudden fatigue had brought him to his room not but an hour ago.

"Commander! Commander!" A high-pitched voice called.

_I swear, I'm going to have Damian destroy that dweeb he calls his servant._

"Open up Commander! I have important news from Eggma- I mean Damian."

Omen never knew Damian's "father", Eggman, he was too young to truly understand the terror, and humiliation he brought to both Mobius and his family name.

"What is it Bokkun?" Omen moaned, opening the door to his room. The tiny robot donning a jetpack bolted into the room with a small device in his hands. He pointed it to the wall, and a Damian, moustache and all, appeared on the flat surface.

"Muhohohoho! Omen, good to see you, if this wasn't a recording, at least." Omen rolled his eyes, "Now down to business. I know you're always wanting new and improved weaponry for your armies, and especially devices that can and will destroy more of the animals, so, I think you're going to like what I've found."

Omen sat up straighter on his bed, Damian usually had a way with words and persuasion, but this time it sounded serious.

Damian wheeled a small cart into vision and ripped the blanket covering it off. There stood Sonic, or at least, Sonic made of metal.

"I've read through my father's diaries, and have learned how to control it. This is Metal Sonic, a robot built with the sole purpose of destroying _the_ Sonic the Hedgehog. When my father passed away, it seems that it deactivated, but, with a few modifications, he is back to par with his old abilities, which matched Sonic when he was wild and untamed by anyone. That Sonic is older now, and will likely lose to this copy. So, do you want to try it? I'm sure that, by the time this message is over, you will have answered, and Metal Sonic will be ready to await your commands. Either way, he's ready to serve."

Omen was impressed, this seemed rather reliable.

"Tell Dr. DR that I accept Metal Sonic's servitude, and will gladly give him a mission."

_*WHOOSH*_

The sound of rockets dulled, and a robot stood in front of Omen, red eyes glaring into the human's soul. The creation looked eviler than anything he'd ever seen before.

The robot made a few harsh, metallic and digital noises in loyalty, and bowed gracefully.

"Metal Sonic?"

Another beep.

"Destroy your doppelganger, Sonic the Hedgehog."

No grin, no smile, no hint of regret was on the face of the metal demon now on the loose. The roar of rockets filled the halls once more, and Metal Sonic disappeared with a sonic boom, off to fulfill its mission.

* * *

Metal Sonic searched the plains with his digitalized eyes, and stared into the setting sun. His mission was simple and so difficult at the same time. Search and destroy, Sonic the Hedgehog.

But where the heck was he? He wasn't on the mountains, or the plains, or the city, which meant he was probably with his friends on the ocean, or maybe the sky. But he'd have to come down eventually.

So he waited, watching the setting sun, and waited for the arrival of his long sought foe.

* * *

Brian glanced dreamily at Luna. He knew it as much as she did, he was infatuated with her, and he got hit with it bad. Luna looked away the moment she caught him staring with disgust upon her face, which, in turn, made Brian look away too, and apologize.

"I'm sorry Luna, I can't help it…"

"Try you oaf. I'm not going to like you, so get used to it." These words hit him hard, but he couldn't stop his thoughts about her. Holding hands, kissing, watching movies in bed, eating breakfast, rolling around in the grass, going on missions, everything he daydreamed about, she was there next to him, engaging herself with a smile on her face.

Luna was still grounded for medical injury, and had taunted Brian with grim thoughts of how nice she thought Stephen was, and how awesome and cool and flowing he was, in personality and body posture. Brian would wilt each time she made a comment, but then a new fantasy or daydream would pop into his head and he smile and perk up again.

"Is it true that Stephen built this place?" She asked, yet again as if she had somehow forgotten.

"Yes Luna, he helped Tails get this place into the sky. Thus, the engines and guns are mainly his work."

"He is so smart…" Luna cooed.

"He's taken though."

"So? Sarah's a brat. I'm better than she is."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you," Brian chuckled.

"Why?"

"Because then she'll kill you. I've known Sarah since I was 10. She's zany, crazy, and obsessed with both herself and Stephen. If anything is said about either of them, and she hears it, she'll batter them around with the "Piko Piko Fist" that she carries around, designed only to inflict pain, and inspired by her mother."

Luna looked at Brian with shock, he was speaking from experience.

"Well Luna, I think you've tortured me for a day, I think we should call it a night." Brian took a chair and set it near the bed, Luna in his sight ever so slightly.

Luna glared at him and shooed him further away, or attempted to.

"Set it up further away from me." She demanded. "And there is no 'we'."

"As you wish." Brian scooted his chair away.

Luna's temper boiled. She was furious without reason, but knew she could do nothing. He was _supposed_ to argue, and he was _supposed_ to be a pain, but he was tolerating her "creeper-be-gone" techniques like a pro! He was _supposed_ to get mad and leave, but he didn't. It was as if this boy was on the planet for the sole purpose of getting on Luna's nerves until she began to drink.

"Why aren't you getting upset?!" She fumed violently, unable to do anything but whine.

Brian laughed and just smiled, "I don't know. I can't be mad with you for some reason. I really do like you, I'm sorry…"

"The moment I'm allowed to walk, I'm going to stay away from you."

Brian held his head low.

"I said I was sorry."

"Well sorry isn't good enough!" Luna folded her arms and looked away, hoping she got to him this time. He wasn't attractive. He wasn't the smartest. He wasn't the strongest. He was just annoying.

"Well I am."

"Can you leave me alone so I can go to bed?"

"No, this is my room." Brian's response was as calm as ever.

"I don't trust you there."

"I'm not going to touch you, I promise." Brian said, averting his eyes from her.

It just didn't seem right, Brian not responding how he should've. Luna fell into a slumber shortly after, refusing to even look at Brian.

* * *

Stephen was ready for bed now. Sarah was angry, so he knew she wanted him in the same bed as her, likely in any vain attempts to have him make love to her, but that was not going to happen.

He placed his pet project on a recording, not accepting calls, and hobbled off to bed with his beloved girlfriend.

Sarah had decided to try to seduce the poor hedgehog, make him hers. She was wearing some of her most saucy undergarments, and was lying on her side on the bed, flirtatiously gazing at him with a glaze to her eyes.

"Hey Stephen." She was definitely up to something.

"Hello Sarah." Stephen smiled back at her.

The moment he plopped himself next to her, she lay an arm on him and fixated her eyes on him.

"I love you." She leaned in for a kiss, and Stephen returned it, determined to keep his sex drive non-existent until the war ended.

"I love you too, silly."

Sarah continued kissing him lightly, and eventually made her way on top of Stephen, trying to brush up against him in ways that would've made him want to have sex with her.

It wasn't happening though, Stephen had expected everything.

"Sarah, you're not getting any of me tonight. Only my lips can kiss you; and only the lips on your head can receive." He smooched her again, and snuggled up next to her, wrapping around her tenderly, and warmly.

"I love you Stephen…"

Stephen chuckled, "me too. I mean, I love you too." Humming a soft tune, Stephen lulled Sarah to sleep, and he drifted to dreamland with her.

* * *

Amy rubbed Sonic's back as he moaned in pain. No one was allowed to see him hurt but Amy. Sonic was getting old, he knew it, but didn't want to acknowledge it at all, nor did anyone within the base. Sarah, and Stephen even though he had his resources, also knew of this, and perhaps Tails as well. Sonic's body couldn't keep up with his spirit as well as it used to.

"Amy, when is it going to end?"

"Oh my Sonikku," she cooed softly, "I don't know, but we're together, is that enough?"

"Amy," Sonic turned over to face her. "We won't be together if this keeps up. GUN is getting better, I felt it in that battle with them today. They are getting stronger, and I am getting nothing but weaker. They will beat me…"

"No they can't. No one can beat the great Sonic!" Amy smiled; she would always remain Sonic's best fan, and wife.

"Thanks Amy…" A shaky breath later, Sonic was into sleep, and Amy gleefully followed him.

Cosmo and Tails, unlike the rest of the base, didn't sleep the same way. Long ago, they'd stopped sharing a bed, demanding their own identity and space away from one another. They were slowly breaking apart, it seemed. Silently and grumpily, they slept in their own individual beds, on opposite sides of the room.

Without a word, the feuding couple passed out in bed, like the others.


	7. Nightmares

Ok y'all, I'm trying something a bit new to me, and I'm trying a lot of it. It is probably only for this chapter for a long time, but I may try a whole story a long while later...

This may be confusing for a LOT of you but bear with me, you aren't SUPPOSED to know who has what dream. My girlfriend said this about this chapter:

"_I thought it really kept you interested. Some of the parts were obvious like you said and some, not so much. Um... None of these were dreams, all nightmares... alot of them almost made me cry._"

So yeah. My girlfriend is really sensitive though, I don't think that all of these are that sad. If you really want to, try to guess who has what dream, they can get pretty tough sometimes though...

* * *

Metal Sonic had a strange issue of late. He'd never admit to it, as it would cause his creator to think him faulty. He would find himself accidentally going into a hibernation mode for only a few hours or so every few days. In this state, however infrequent, he would have a robot equivalent of dreaming.

This puzzled him, as it was impossible. Small bits and pieces of his own code randomly lining up to give him dreams. Strange.

He found himself dozing off again in the great plain, but this time, it wasn't a pleasant memory he found himself in. It was a nightmare.

* * *

I raced across the fields. No longer was I chasing Sonic as I usually do, attempting to finally best my copy. No. Now, I was running away.

"RAAAAAAAAARGH!" It wailed, the best that pursued me. Its long neck and wide face with a variety or rows of teeth made me call it one name, Dragon. The wings of this ferocious creature flapped strongly, aided by rockets, and I knew my time would be short if I couldn't trick it.

I stopped and turned around, halting immediately. My scanners searched the area quickly, and it wasn't there. Dragon had disappeared.

Another roar emanated from somewhere behind me. I spun around, and there it was, Dragon. Its strong wings folded in, revealing strong metal muscles, ready to pulverize me.

"Target acquired." It bellowed, reaching its hand out towards my neck. Even though I was a robot designed to work at high speeds, it was lethally fast.

I jumped back, and the hand closed around where my neck was. It looked at its wide hand, and howled in displeasure. I watched as the wings unfolded from the sides of Dragon's arms, and it began to fly after me.

I bolted like a bat out of hell from the plain again.

I turned my head only to watch as it approached me at dizzying speeds, blurry to _my_ scanners.

I jumped as it lunged for me, and lurched sideways if it permitted, even ducking if it meant not being caught.

So this is how Sonic feels when chased by my creator…

*_CLANK_*

I was caught.

My head twitched, trying to wrench itself away from the metal grasp that had me locked in tight. I could only look into the gleaming eyes of Dragon, and wish I could shiver.

It roared in my face, spraying a corrosive acid over my face that fogged up my sight.

I wiped the fog away with a few coolants in my eye panels, only to see his arm reeled back.

"Terminated."

The hand lunged at my face, and-

* * *

I lifted my head up only to realize that I was in a hospital bed.

_How did I get here?_ I wondered, possibly aloud as I sat up. I looked around, and white, that was all I ended up seeing. There were walls made of thick glass surrounding my bed, and then people started to form.

_Hmm… how long have I been out?_ It was a good question, I had no idea where it was I fell asleep last.

The people looked at me with worried looks on her face. Their voices were soft and murmur-like.

"Stay away…"

"Infected…"

"Kill us all…"

"Back!"

"Contagious…"

The hedgehogs, foxes, bulls, cats, dogs, birds, they all stayed far away from me, all behind the glass.

Was I infected? With what? Was I going to die?

"Terminal…"

_No…_ I screamed mentally.

They were going to stay away from me forever, and let me die. They were going to watch as the disease ravished my body and ate me alive, whatever it was.

There was no one within the glass bubble. There was no one to talk to. There was nothing to be given to me, ever again.

Then, the room vanished, and a figure came in, shaped like a dandelion. He came bringing a plate filled with food and medicine.

"Who are you?" I asked to the flower.

"A friend." He smiled widely as he placed the food down for me. "Open wide." He beckoned as he placed food in my mouth, helping me with everything.

Maybe being sick wasn't so bad. This flower would watch over me.

"What's your name?" I asked, but then he started crying.

I looked down, and saw that the red substance coming from within me was leaving, and being overtaken by this green acid. The disease was taking over…

* * *

_CRASH_

Fire. Explosion. Crashing. Burning. Not again… No matter how many times I dreamt, no matter how old I got, my past would always haunt me. "Run!"

I began to run; the bad guys were coming again. Another explosion rocked our ship, and I fell to the floor. I looked up, normally, I would've seen one of them looking down at me, it was the same dream every time. This time however, it wasn't a male clad in armor; it was a demon holding a gun.

He roared at me, and I felt my innards twist inside out; it was a soul shattering bellow that came from its mouth. A scream came from my lips, I couldn't help it, but it wasn't in fear. It was in pain.

The twist in my stomach came at me again, probably like menstrual cramps, only worse, maybe giving birth.

I wailed in horror, it only became worse.

"IYA!" I screamed again, the pain swept over my body like a fire. I hated fire.

"Zaug, kwait san. Ikoya ne…" A bolt of energy shot over my head, and impacted the demon, who roared again, causing another wave of pain, and then a yellow critter charged, presumably the one that saved me from the demon with the bolt of lightning energy.

It yelped, but then another shot of energy hit the demon. It turned, howled, and charged after that.

The yellow critter, stained with red, picked me up, and began running.

Green light was everywhere as he took me out into space, where I would've normally been watching my ship get destroyed, all of my family along with it. Instead, the ship began to fall down, as if it were a pirate ship hit with a cannon ball.

Down it fell, and so did I, and the ground came up beneath me.

Blue water fell onto my face as the yellow one cried over me.

"Socom…" it cried again and again. "I eovl ouy…" the voice said. I wished I could respond any way other than screaming but alas, I could not.

Then, I was buried alive by the yellow creature.

* * *

"AUUUGH!" Another ear shattering scream. I hated these pathetic creatures, and I hated being the hero. Granted, they needed one, and it seemed too cruel to let them down.

Despite all of my efforts, I still had a hint of compassion in me…

A gleam of light, and I found myself in the middle of a war. I saw with my own eyes the fear in the 50 anthropomorphic creatures, fleeing from something.

My old masters were chasing them down.

I chanted loudly, and began to speed around my newfound enemies, destroying their already useless metal to the point of no return. One by one they fell, until I came across a new creation.

I had seen this robot before.

Asking no questions, I stared it down, and waited for it to aid me, as I saw it as an ally. It came at me faster than a speeding bullet, and nailed me in the gut. For once in my life, I felt a pain too devastating to comprehend. I stood up, however, and ran. I figured this creation would kill them all, so I led it away, at a blinking speed.

However, it seemed that I wasn't going to get out of this one too easily.

With the flick of a wrist, the creature pulled out a gun, and began to fire at me, hitting my fur hard. I winced in pain, and continued running away. I had to protect them all.

Being chased… it was fun if your foe couldn't actually hurt you.

I wasn't too lucky in my case.

A new strike on the back, and I fell over, the metal juggernaut hopped over my limp body, and I kicked, hard. Oddly, it was unfazed, and I was in pain. I threw bolts of energy at its face, but all it did was wince. It grabbed my leg, and pulled me up effortlessly to eye's height.

"Targeted." It groaned mechanically.

It whipped me around, trying to stop me from struggling. I proudly smiled after 5 minutes of being swung around and beaten at the mercy of the creation, and then finally hung flaccid in his grip. It would all be over now.

No… it couldn't be… I was still needed.

Then the gleaming green bolt of energy in the other metal hand grew too bright…

* * *

Those two lovebirds! I couldn't believe they had the audacity to make out in the middle of a mission! I didn't even really think she'd give into his weak charms! I still can't tell if that is his arm over her chest, or hers, but it is still too close to be when one is supposed to be running away from enemy units!

Well, I couldn't just leave them there.

"C'mon guys! We've got to move!" They couldn't hear me at all.

The troops must've been close, I could hear their footsteps getting closer in the mist.

"C'MON!"

They just stood there, hopelessly together, not moving. They'd given up it seemed.

"There they are!"

"Fire!"

"NO!"

My first reaction was my last.

I dove.

* * *

Oh how I love him! Oh how I do! I'd love to bear his children, or maybe two! It would seem that this is the pattern of all of my dreams.

This one was so sad though… I saw my knight shining over the horizon, in the middle of the sky just before morning.

It should've been romantic, but I was panicked. He could die! He could kill himself! My angel, my darling angel, he could easily cease to exist. Then, no one would love me…

He dove in the sky, battling it out with the devil himself, a flaming monstrosity wrought in hell. He was a shining light, given to me and the world by heaven, and they were fighting for the world's peace.

I wanted so dearly to help him, but I couldn't fly, nor could I swim well, nor could I battle hell itself… only my hero could do that…

I watched hopelessly as they dove at each other, slashing hacking and punching, thrashing about in the sky like two dogs going in for the kill.

I knew he'd make it, he'd never lost before.

"My angel…" I spoke softly with hope, people turned their heads to me grimly, wondering how I could have hope when the fate of the world was placed upon a single boy.

A second later, God decided to end the battle for good. A bolt of angry light came down from the sky.

"MY ANGEL!"

I fell to my knees as the light consumed him.

* * *

That damn silver knight, every night he takes my flower from my memories. But no longer! I will join with her once more, and taint her pure white petals with my black coat.

I now see myself lying next to her, my money still withheld from me, and my parents dead, and my life not worth living, but she is still there! No silver knight to whisk her off away from me.

She is mine tonight, even if it is just a dream.

I move in slowly, making sure not to be too hasty, in fear of the silver knight.

My hips touch hers, and I realize that I've won her body over again.

Then, minutes later, I hear it. The silver knight.

"Go away!" I spit to the air, "Yours is mine now! She looks better in black anyways!"

Only the clanking of metal can be heard outside the patio.

"Te-teacher?" I gulped, the menacing face of him looked into my eyes.

"Die." He muttered, and I was immediately engulfed in flames, my flower only protecting my lower regions.

I watched my little flower shrivel and die beneath my body, and I suffered the same fate.

* * *

"I'm ready." She said. Miles away and I could still hear her voice as clearly as a bell.

There she was, rooted deeply into the rock, and here I sat, crosshair aimed dead center for her.

I looked at her in all her beauty, and my frame quivered violently. I would not cry. I could not cry. Real men weren't supposed to cry… _He_ never cried, and _he_ was the best. But the sadness welled up in me, and my thoughts blurred. In my head, memories of her and I, however weak and pathetic, rushed to the forefront of my brain, and the salty water rushed from my eyes.

"Don't worry about me. Just fire."

No.

No.

No.

I couldn't do it. But I _had_ to.

"Weren't you supposed to stay with us after this was all over?!" I yelled violently, my emotions were taking over again.

She didn't respond.

I closed the flap over the trigger. No one was going to hurt this beloved girl.

More memories came and went, simple ones too, just walking next to her, getting bandaged by her, looking at her smiling face. How pathetic my love life was. I hadn't even told her I loved her.

I should do that…

But it was already too late.

In minutes, something so perfect and pure would have to leave this universe. I hadn't told her I liked her yet. I hadn't held her hand as much as I would've liked. I didn't even ask her out for _anything_.

What a life, huh? She would hate me if I did this, and even in the afterlife she'd never consider me. I didn't deserve her at all. In fact, she may be better off without me ever again… I probably held her back from everyone else-

"The fate of the galaxy rests in this decision! I know you care for her, but it must be done. Besides, she wants this."

I contemplated my teammate's points, and sighed, shivering again. So what? I wanted her to stay alive! To be with me, and live happily, to hug and hold her!

I didn't want her to die!

I didn't want to kill her!

More memories flooded into me.

_Every_ smile, _every _laugh, _every_ movement of _every_ follicle of her luscious hair, I loved her.

I loved her.

The one darn thing I could never say to her.

It was now or never. She would die now, or die thirty seconds later when the universe imploded, originating from the rock she lay on.

I loved her.

I loved her.

I _love_ her. And I always will love her.

"I LOVE YOU!" I shouted out, angrily and desperately. In a deft move, I flipped the safety off, and slammed the trigger down with my thumb.

I felt my chair shake, not from me this time, and watched the bullets fired at my one true love spin in a perfect double helix at her innocent chest.

In a flash of light, all was gone.

I killed her.

I killed her…

* * *

There it was, the robot, working properly. It stood up slowly and glared at everyone in the room. It was obviously… angry? Why? We brought it back to life, and it was supposed to serve me. How could a robot be angry?

"Targets. Flesh… destroy…" He murmured, green eyes boiling us down.

I approached it, and called to it, no voice came from my mouth however hard I tried.

It was then I realized that this creature was maniacal. It was bent solely on a revenge that it couldn't obey me.

"I am…" Its voice was cold and smooth and evil.

"I am…" It said again, the voice cooling me to the core.

"I am… the one." It horrified me as its inverted legs, similar to a raptor's, stood up to its full height, a menacing 8 feet, and looked down at me.

Never before had I felt so insignificant in all my life.

* * *

Oh how I love him! Oh how I do! I bore his child, and she's blue too!

All my dreams are like that, ever since I was a little girl. And now, I find myself watching my knight flying across the field, going into battle with an army from hell. What an amazing man he is.

Singlehandedly, he'll strike a foe, and they'll vanish back to the nothing they spawned from. One by one, they fall, all down, but not my knight. Not the one of speed.

All were falling so fast, I couldn't keep up with him at all. But then… but then Hell's Champion appeared.

Gargoyle wings spread wide, it fell from a black sky, and landed with an earthquake. My knight would prevail, he always did.

The Champion swung his arms about thrashing at the space my knight was a moment before, as he ran around like a speeding bullet. Occasionally, my knight would strike, but no damage was inflicted.

"My knight!" I cried as the Champion struck through the air and caught his neck.

He lifted him up in the air, coldly staring, and squeezed.

"My knight…" My knight was now comprised of three physical parts… A head, a body without a neck up, and a crumpled piece of bloody flesh, once called his neck.

I dropped to my knees and wept.

* * *

My fair and radiant moon, she lit up my dreams so well… I sat underneath her, with her on my lap. I gently cradled her, brushing my muzzle into hers. We stood up, after an eternity, and began to walk.

Suddenly, _it_ appeared, and my moon ran from me to be with _it_.

She smiled and ran with _it_, following _it_ into a small hut in the forest.

I gave chase, I didn't want _it_ to do anything with my moon… she was all I ever cared about. I ran to the door of the hut and reached for the handle to open it, but someone held my arm back. I looked to see who it was, and there I was, holding myself back. I was a shadow of doubt, and fear for myself, pulling myself back. I needed to overcome that to reach the door. She was in there, and I needed to get there too.

I heard noises from within the hut.

_It_ cannot take her like that! She'll be hurt! She'll be defiled! I'll protect her! I'll defend her! I must!

I exerted all my might against myself, trying to reach the door, that I was still afraid to open, but I got nowhere.

The noises were getting louder, and my spirits dampened.

I don't deserve her, do I? I'm so weak I can't even beat my own shadow… She might be better off with _it_.

NO.

NO. NO. NO.

I _HAD_ to beat myself. I _HAD_ to!

"RARGH!" I growled, battering against my own strength and reaching the doorknob, only to realize that it was open the whole time.

_What a worthless piece of crap you can't even open an open door! _A voice in my head taunted.

I landed on the floor in a heap, and looked up.

There was my moon, hands all over _it_, licking _its_ face and letting _it_ runs _its_ hands all over her body in places I dared not look.

She turned her head, a glazed look in her eyes with a small amount of drool dripping from her lips, and gazed at me.

Her lips curled into a wry smile, all of her body was tainted with the color of _it_, and she shook her head no.

She turned back to _it, _and proceeded to meld with _it_ before my eyes, letting herself be consumed.

* * *

"My dear friend…" He called to me.

Max was back. **(A/N: Ok, this is my fault... y'all don't know Max yet... he plays a role in SoL2, the one with Sonic and Amy as a couple... I'll explain later...)**

"Max, why are you here?" I asked, the desert sands of Malavar ripped around us as we stood staring at our figures.

"Disturber, it is time to join me." The anthropomorphic stag held out his arm to my gloved one and grasped it.

"Join?" I asked, I felt my life leaving my skin.

"Long ago, you were a free spirit. Before, you were settled. Now, you witness the end."

I understood.

My time had come.

But I wasn't finished yet… I had a war to win! A wife to love! A kid to cherish! And a grandchild not yet conceived! I wasn't done…

"But-"

"I, Maximilian will be your guide, so you can guide them when their time has come."

I didn't want to leave yet!

The sands grew thick, and whipped me about, I felt my skin peeling off my face, and ripping my fur off. I cringed as I looked at my hand, slowly becoming a skeleton, exactly like Max was.

His horns glowed, shining through the sandstorm, and with his hand on my arm, he guided me, the sand blowing away my life force.

Then, everything went black.

I felt nothing.

I saw nothing.

I heard… chirping.

I was back in Green Hill Zone.

Max was standing above me, fully fleshed like I'd never seen him before. And beside him, a golden hedgehog, smiling at me in a way only my wife knew how.

"Welcome, Great Hero of Mobius!" She declared, and the light from her smile blinded me to the point of waking up.

* * *

"All weapons fire!" I growled, pressing more buttons into my control panel.

The blasted blur whipped through my inventions again and rocketed towards me.

"Not this time…" I muttered, flipping a switch, activating a secret weapon that did something I was not aware of yet.

The blur was caught this time, and lodged inside a mechanical hand. A handy little tool, if I do say so myself.

"Dad!" Another hedgehog cried out as it flew to the figure she called dad.

"Honey, I've got him." I turned my head, and a grey fist slugged my jaw, hurting my horribly.

As my head fell down, I looked at the screen beneath me. _This is all a distraction!_ More animals were approaching the store for the jewels, while I wasn't guarding it.

I rushed that way as the owner of the grey fist laughed wildly.

I used my robot's arms to block the way they entered and exited, and tried to shoot at them as they approached.

The blur then appeared in front of me. _When did I release him?_ "Betcha can't catch me!" He taunted, darting off.

KILL HIM! I fired all of my weapons again, watching him intently as they homed in on his feet, trying to throw him off balance.

He dodged them all, and fired a few back at me.

While I recovered from the explosion in my robo-suit, I noted that they all began moving the stolen goods into a truck, which I immediately tried to stop, only to find that they were done, and ready to pull off.

The blur ran off, as their truck began to move, the grey man in the driver's seat laughing wildly.

I aimed for the blur again, trying to strike him down. A plane flew out from the sky, and leaned a wing near it for him to have a hasty retreat from me.

The plain spun around, and landed in an opening on the massive truck driving away from me.

I began to sprint using my robot, lumbering over as fast as I could to outrun it.

_If only I had some jet boosters… that would allow me to catch the truck…_

What a brilliant idea!

* * *

_What a lovely dinner for the two of us…_ I thought as I sat down next to my lovely rose and smiled warmly. We hadn't done anything romantic in a long while, so a dinner would have been nice.

As I sat across the small table, I looked into her eyes gleefully.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Our meal continued in peace and quiet for quite some time.

A minute or so later of no talking and psychic, hormonal talking, she dropped her utensils, and held her stomach.

"Rose, Rose, what's wrong?"

She only screamed as she held her stomach and looked with wide, horrified eyes at the wall behind me.

"It's here!" She wailed.

I turned around, and looked at the wall. Nothing was there.

Then I turned back, I was staring into a metal face with pale green eyes and long ears. The body of my Rose, with this monstrosity of a head attached.

The eyes flashed red, and the rest of her body became metal.

She lunged at me, and I began to run. I opened the window and looked outside to jump. The sky was flaming and red.

I decided the hallways was a better option and ran there.

I met my father in law, and told him what happened to my Rose.

He only chuckled, and he too had his face turn metallic, with green eyes tinted with red, long, pointy ears, homologous to horns.

He began chasing me as I ran into the courtyard.

Everyone was there, their heads popping lightly as they turned into the same metal head with green eyes and pointy ears, all made of metal.

They all approached me step by step, there was nowhere to hide.

"Storm's coming." A voice said.

I turned my head, panicked, to face the golden girl sitting next to me, watching the metal zombies coming to kill me.

"He's here." She said ominously.

"What storm? Who's here?" I asked frantically. I hated being scared.

"You'll see. Be ready." She chuckled, watching intently as I backed into a corner, the metal zombies coming closer.

"It will all end soon." She said with finality, and then everyone lunged at me, ripping me into pieces with their metal claws, and abnormal strength.

My life ended.

* * *

_Where am I?_

_What am I?_

_Who am I?_

It is all blank. I remember black skies, lightning, hell. But no more than that. There's a girl, beauty beyond compare, laying bloody and dead on a floor. I remember floating, hardly an ounce of life within me… how long ago was that? Who is she? Where am I? What am I doing here?

I am cut. Someone has torn me from my past. What did I do? Who was I?

Wait… I see something…

"_I shall uphold justice in my station, there will be no violence_."

What?

"_Violence shall be used to obtain peace if voice shall not work."_

Who is that grey haired man?

"_People are expendable to peace."_

The General! I must kneel…

"_Only the General can give me orders."_

Yes… Orders from the General…

"_Any violation of this code shall result in death and deactivation."_

I do not want deactivation… must obey General…

Take this gun, and be our sword…

_BZZZZZZT_

_Where am I?_

_What am I?_

_Who am I?_

It is all blank… I can't remember a thing… there's a girl… there's lightning… there's hell… Why am I here?

What did I do?

_BZZZZZZT _

_Who am I?_


	8. Repairs

**NOTICE! I will be gone for the next five days, do not expect an update. I'd apologize (again,) but that would be redundant...**

* * *

Cosmo awoke with a shiver, but a warm one. She found something around her in her bed, a person.

Opening her eyes, she looked at the man in her bed, and immediately was confused. Tails had gotten into her bed, and hugged her tightly while she was asleep.

Her immediate thoughts consumed her mind, and she blushed lightly. _There is no way he was the golden one in my dreams, was he?_ But then, her consciousness resumed, and she remembered to be mad at him. It wasn't hard seeing as he was in her bed, and she was defenseless if he were to try something.

"Tails!" Cosmo snapped, waking the fox up earlier than he'd like.

"Cosmo? What are you doing in my bed?"

"I am asking that question here. You come in my bed and hug me tightly while I sleep? Who knows what else you do…" Cosmo and Tails were always so irritable to one another these days.

Tails simply responded, "I don't know," got up, and left her alone.

_Maybe it was because I was afraid again? Impossible… I haven't felt that way in over 16 years…_

Tails walked out of the small hut and began sniffing around for a quick breakfast before getting into the lab to work on his projects.

* * *

Stephen awoke with his girlfriend clenching his chest with what limbs she had. So much so, that his chest was stretched out and clumped together. Apparently, Sarah had been grabbing at him more than once, needing reassurance that he was there or something.

She was trembling still.

"Sarah?" Stephen stroked her face gently, attempting to wake her up.

Sarah's eyes opened faster than window shades, and she stared at Stephen while her pupils focused, adjusting to the light.

"Stephen… it was only a dream…" She mumbled, satisfied.

"Sarah, I'm going to go help Tails, do you need me?"

"Please don't go, not yet…"

Stephen lay in bed, resting, while Sarah clenched onto him.

* * *

Lucien and Sylvia monitored everything as they waited impatiently for their master to wake up. They knew he was awake, but it was rude to try to make him move.

"Oh come on brother! He's right there, and he's obviously not sleeping!" Sylvia complained.

"No. He is with Mistress Sarah, we shall not disturb them."

"You are SUCH a kill joy! I still have no idea how we came from the same program! I mean seriously, you're no fun at all, and act all prim and proper all the jolly-good time and- Stephen's getting out of bed!" Sylvia rushed to the door.

Lucien rolled his non-existent eyes, and strode slowly to his post.

"So, did you try anything new Stephen?" Sylvia cocked an eyebrow on her hologram.

"No… but I had a disturbing dream…"

"Anything dirty?" The pink, digital cat inquired.

"Not what you're looking for. Lucien, Sylvia, do you know anything about a storm? Check everything for me, ok? I have a really bad feeling in my gut…" Stephen sighed, tip-toeing out of the room where Sarah slept. Work was work, and Stephen had a lot to do.

* * *

Tails sat in his chair in the basement, sipping his coffee.

"What a freaky nightmare…" He sighed, "I thought I was over that long ago…"

With one more, quick gulp of his Cup of Joe, he sat up, grabbed a wrench, and walked over to the toy he and Stephen had spent so much time on recently.

The inventors' "toy" was a project they had started long ago when they intercepted, debugged, and took apart, a GUN Service Truck. They had taken the truck apart on the spot, and shipped it up, piece by piece to their aerial fortress.

Since then, they had souped it up to scary proportions in speed and durability. And both Stephen and Tails had thrown in a few surprises to it, along with their present task, getting it sky-worthy, or at least fall-worthy.

They had every intention to fly the thing down to the good earth, and use it on a mission.

Tails tightened a few bolts on a turbine with a mask on when Stephen arrived.

The doors flew open quickly as Stephen strolled in with a grin on his face.

"Tails! I'm ba-ack!" He sung, dancing into the room, letting his limb's momentum swing him around in the large area. His arms swung around gracefully and he glided next to Tails and swiped a laser cutter from a table 20 feet away with an extended arm.

"If you weren't so good at this, I'd scold you for goofing off."

"This _is _goofing off Tails! This is child's play!" Stephen giggled and he began to weld a piece of metal to the turbine.

"So, do you think it will work like we planned it to?" Tails rubbed his head, taking his mask off as he looked at the giant truck, taking up much of the lighting in the room.

"Uh, duh? Of course it will. When have either of us made something that failed? I mean, look at the blueprints. Everything works out fine. As long as all of the gears are in place, and Cosmo, Sonic, and Sarah or any of them, isn't in the way of the mechanics, which they shouldn't be in the first place, then they can't get mangled in the transformation, and the transformation won't go faulty due to something getting stuck in it. It'll be fine."

"I want to test it."

"No, we have neither the time, nor the space, nor the materials if something were to prevent it from working properly. We'll just have to test it in battle." Stephen grinned. Taking risks was his favorite part of inventing.

"Stephen…" Tails warned with a cautioning voice.

"That's my name! Don't wear it out!" Stephen's smirk only widened as he jumped and grappled to the ceiling. Locking his feet and legs into the rafters above, he threw his arms down the fifty some feet, and grabbed the turbine carefully, slowly retracting his limbs.

"Easy now, you hooligan…" Tails always found Stephen's attitude playfully irritable and annoying. How Sarah could stand him, let alone want him was beyond the poor fox.

Stephen concentrated, and the jet was slowly lifted into the air, and moved to a spot on the truck.

"Tails, hurry up down there, I can't hold this bugger for long." Stephen grimaced; the turbine was gigantic, and immensely heavy.

Tails hovered up to the spot where Stephen held it, and carefully fixed the massive turbine in place. The moment Tails cooled it, Stephen fell down, and sunk into the hull of the truck, hooking a few wires in place, and readying the device for use. At the same time, Tails hopped into the cab of the truck, and began checking if the engine's signal was being picked up.

"Green means go." Tails reported nonchalantly.

"One down, five to go…" There was going to be six in all, four for the back, and two for the cab. They couldn't be unlinked, but, if the two were accidentally separated, Tails wanted to be ready.

With a jig to his step, Stephen danced his way to the next engine; it took a day or so to actually make it from scrap, so it was going to take a long time to make all six.

* * *

Luna had been up for a long time. She had already eaten breakfast, and she already was out of Brian's room.

_That lousy oaf didn't even notice me leave! HA! Now I can go watch the hunky Stephen-what's-his-name. _And that is exactly what she tried to do.

Wandering the lower levels of the castle, she came across the bull that had bothered her the day before. It didn't take long to apologize.

"Hey, Cal, right?"

The young bull nodded his head, horns bobbing along.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you guys, you really did save me, and I thank you for that."

"Oh don't mention it; I'm always here to help." Cal froze moments after.

_That dream… "I'm always here to help?" I wonder if they're going to get together._

"Hey Luna, do you like Brian?"

"He's annoying as hell. He's such a creep!" Luna was quick to fume.

Cal smiled widely.

"That seems like denial."

_What? Denial? _Luna mentally growled. "What do you mean, denial?"

"I mean, you really like him, but you can't let yourself believe that because you want to be hard to get. I know all about your type." Cal smiled and nodded coolly.

Luna couldn't believe this kid. He was shorter than her, and was explaining to her how he had her all figured out. Not to mention every word that was uttered from his mouth was completely ludicrous.

"I don't like him you stupid bull. I've got the hots for the grey guy, Stephen. He's hot."

Cal's eyes bulged as he took a step back up.

_That's right, Cal, I like Stephen, take that, idiot. _"Not to mention charming, good at hugging, really smart, and cool to a new power, and has a good taste in women's underwear."

"Oh really?" A voice said from behind her.

Luna opened her eyes from an extended blink, and looked at Cal, cowering in a corner pointing at Luna. No, pointing _behind_ Luna. Luna turned around and stared into the eyes of that light-blue hedgehog, Sarah Rose.

Luna glared at her, unfazed.

"You want to take any of that back?" Sarah offered, cracking the fingers on her one normal hand, eyes fixated on Luna.

"Not. At. All." Luna declared.

Sarah's stare became a glare, and a deadly one at that.

"I like that boy, and personally can't even see what he likes about you. I want him myself."

Sarah blew a fuse right then.

Supersonically, she tackled Luna, and smashed her into the wall behind her, whacking her over the head with her metal arm.

Luna bled a little, and ferociously let her eyes attack Sarah. "Crazy bitch. How can Stephen stand you? Maybe I do have a shot at him." Luna's words were overly spiteful.

"TAKE IT BACK!" Sarah could hardly stand Luna wanting to date Stephen, let alone tell her that she had no chance with her own boyfriend. "It's not true…" Sarah began to cry.

Luna looked into Sarah's eyes. _She must have a disorder or something…_ Thinking it over, Luna realized she was a bit too harsh on Sarah, if of course she was mentally ill. _I should apologize._

"Listen Sarah," Her voice was still a bit gruff, and Sarah, assuming the worst, bolted like a piece of blue lightning. "Shit…" Luna walked away, holding her head. Maybe someone could help her clean it up. It was a small cut, but a cut nonetheless.

* * *

By nightfall, things had calmed down quite a bit, and Stephen decided to take a stroll in the lower levels of the castle he co-owned. Something didn't feel right to him, and he knew something was wrong with Sarah.

There were only two places in the castle that Sarah would be, if away from him for long periods of time. One was her room, which she wasn't right now. The other, was in the synthetic Chao garden in the basement.

The garden was unlike anything Stephen had uncovered before. He and Tails, while expanding the base, came across an underground cavern where the sun shone, and water flowed. It was a natural phenomenon that Stephen hadn't seen the likes of before. Naturally, the two built the base around it, and forgot about it for the most part, but, when they all lifted up into the sky, the garden came with them. The river still flowed, and the sun still shone.

Sarah would go there if she was very depressed, in any hopes that the Chao would cheer her up.

"You don't hate me, do you?" Sarah asked to the little blue critters hovering over and around her head.

One of the littler ones cuddled her cheek, and she giggled lightly. She let her back rest on the grass next to all of them, and let loose a heavy sigh.

"That horrible girl… but she's right… how could he love a girl like me? I'm wildly in love with him… and he doesn't treat me like a girlfriend that much…"

Sarah babbled on as Stephen secretly listened in on her. He had wriggled his way into the cavern, and had with him the sky blue Chaos Emerald, meaning his body was more translucent than a chameleon.

His steps were silently as he slinked to his girlfriend's side.

Sarah's eyes slowly began to water, and Stephen, sitting right next to her invisibly, wiped the water from her eyes.

"I'm not leaving you Sarah." He kissed her sweetly, taking her by utter surprise.

"Stephen? Ho-how much did you hear?" She shuddered.

"Enough. I know you beat up Luna, and I should scold you as the leader of this base for that, but, you're possessive of me, and I like that."

"But she was right… I'm a freak, and I'm probably holding you down."

"Are you kidding me?" He helped Sarah up off the ground, a spring to his step as always, "Sarah, had it been anyone else in the world who found me, they probably would've been crueler to me, but, if they had been kind, I would've bound myself to them too. I'm not saying that you're not special, but, what is done is done. You were the one who found me and helped me back to health, and endured my growth more patiently than a parent.

"I really do love you Sarah, I just don't like to show it in public as much as some boyfriends might. And, due to that fact that you practically raised me, I'm not leaving you. Unless you shun me away or commit suicide, PS don't do that, please, I'm staying by your side. I mean, who else will help me run fast? You know I can't run all too well." Stephen joked, provoking a laugh from Sarah.

"I guess."

"No, there is no guessing about it. I love you, and if you love me, we'll both love each other, and spend the rest of our lives together."

_The rest of our lives together?_ Sarah thought happily.

"I will tell Luna to back off soon, and if you want to be with me, and can control yourself, I will let you accompany me."

"Ok… I'll behave." Sarah pulled Stephen back, and pissed him wildly. "But right now, can I not?" Stephen rolled his eyes, and pulled Sarah close, and rolled around with her, kissing continuously, but never going further than that.

Again, a near sure-fire plan to have Stephen make love to her was thwarted. At this point though, Sarah didn't care, she had him, and he had her, and they had each other. War or no war, what they had was heaven.


	9. Inori

**If you wish, you may skip this, my girlfriend thinks it is very cute and sad, but, it is primarily a bridge between two sections. If you are ok with skipping ahead, (not much of relevance happens here,) go ahead.**

* * *

_7 years ago…_

I sat down on a bench, watching the two love-struck idiots hugging and kissing about half a mile down the road from me, and smiled. I was so much faster than my father and making this happen. I was, after all, the love bug.

"Quasar." A stern voice behind me startled me from my daze.

My head made a 180 degree spin to see my 'uncle' James, along with the rest of the THEA brigade.

"Hey James, what's going on?" I smiled, looking at them.

They didn't seem themselves.

James wasn't ogling at Anna, _how dumb can a robot be?_ Lance wasn't trying to woo Lily, _what a weirdo._ Anna wasn't humming, _what a strange hobby._ Lily wasn't moving at blurring speeds, _did someone slip her a sedative? _Xenophon didn't have a crazed look in its eyes, _they're green? _And Gannon was out of his ship, _I forgot he was orange…_

They all looked rather… sad.

"Quasar," James said a bit more lightly, "you'd better come with us."

"Why?" I asked in my teenaged voice, I was always a child to this group, no matter the experience.

Why wasn't my father with them? Oh yeah, he was screwing that whorish piece of flesh he called Julie, or rather letting her fall deeper in love with him, like that would get anywhere.

"Ok…" I sighed, glumly coming along, adding to their mood.

I stepped aboard the _Resonance_ and took my seat in my father's would-be chair, and held onto the handhold. Everyone boarded, and we took off into space. Then, a few moments later, the ship lurched forwards, and everything was covered in light.

"Where are we now?" I wondered aloud.

"Follow us; we've been invited to see something." James said coldly, as if acting on protocol again.

_Boy, this is strange…_ I hopped out, along with everyone, and began to walk along a golden path. The path was bizarre, it was almost cloudlike in appearance, and made my mind realize that I was in the presence of the Mythic Ones. I'd never seen one before… other than maybe my own mother… my _real_ mother… not that slutty piece of flesh known as Julie. How did my father ever fall for her?

The seven of us walked through a variety of pathways and corridors, all leading to the middle of a chamber. Above and around us, millions of rows of chairs, or thrones, rather, stretched into the ever darkening abyss that was the ceiling. We all sat down on a bench just out of the way from the center, where something was chained to a pillar-like structure.

It was my father.

"Dad?" My voice trembled. I was scared for being here, I didn't know how I knew how to be scared, being made of metal, but I was. I was scared for my father too, the very thought that his face would be in the middle of the Grand Council shocked me.

"XT-421, you are hereby accused of directly interfering with the death of a daughter of the planet Earth, lying within the realm of-"

"Why is my father here?" I demanded to James in a harsh whisper.

"Listen and learn…" His voice was hardly audible.

"-one of the best Mythic Ones, and one of the oldest, in existence. You attempted to resurrect Julie Elizabeth Bell, did you not?" The voice boomed.

"Julie…" He cried out weakly. His armor was battered and dented and his arms, wings, and legs were bound behind him.

"How do you please? Guilty, or not guilty."

"Heavens! Leave him alone! He is not in the mental state to be dealt with right now!" A golden, yet puny, figure demanded with her small voice.

"Celeste, shut up." A lesser offered, not wanting to hear her voice plead for XT again.

"Orderum, he just lost his soulmate! Any one of you would do the same thing!" Celeste roared.

"Celeste!" The booming voice hushed the rising commotion within the chamber, "You were not supposed to make him in the first place! You were _supposed_ to keep him under control! Along with his associates, over there."

Thousands of sets of eyes suddenly had their gaze upon my figure, and I felt like melting.

"We've not done a thing wrong! Is helping your people attain a better life wrong at all?" Anna stood and glared at them.

"You help covertly, not making yourselves seen as much, but XT-421 does his _helping_ openly more than 98 percent of the time! ANY interference is not to be tolerated; we should have you all shut down."

_Shut down? _That wasn't good…

"NO!" Celeste cried, falling to her knees from her chair.

"All in favor of shutting down the infamous THEA, say aye." The judge figure offered.

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

And many more 'aye's were heard. In seconds, all in favor were counted, and the count rested at a 62 percent majority, enough to end us. I looked at my family, XT, James, Anna, and they all looked calm, except XT, who was blankly staring into space, and uttering the name Julie over and over again.

"The Council has decided to take the lives of all members of THEA." A dark shadow appeared at the end of the stage at which I was to die. In its hand, a long staff with a large sickle at the end of it loomed out of the dark mist that surrounded its face.

"WAIT!" Celeste screamed, not wanting all of her work to end like this, "Just wait…"

The shadow stopped, the people's talking stopped, I think my circuits even stopped.

"May I please offer a proposal, to spare their lives?" She begged on her knees to these men and women and things of legacy.

"Do as you wish…"

"If they solemnly swear never to be seen by the members of your realms again, may they live?"

"If they cease their actions entirely, they'll live." Another voice thundered from above, the seats above were always saved for the bigger, more important beings.

"XT-421 cannot and will not stop his so-called mission. He must die with the rest of them!" Another voice shouted.

The judge deliberated, and offered a suggestion.

"We shall kill XT-421, and spare the rest, if, and ONLY if, they refrain from being seen again in any realm other than the Omega or their home realms. All in favor of _this _proposal, say aye."

They were tallied, and it was almost anonymous. "Then it is settled, THEA, you are henceforth banished from the sight of any mythic outside of the Omega Realm and your home realm of Rinoco, and must never interfere with the fates of creatures outside those realms. If you are found guilty of breaking this generous treaty, that individual shall be executed immediately, am I understood?"

"Yes sir…" We answered as one.

"Good. You may now commence with the execution."

_Didn't he just say we'd live?_

I wasn't thinking clearly as the shadow approached my father, sickle-staff in hand. The sickle was raised, above my vegetable father, and came down with a clean, swipe, cutting through his body.

My dad wailed in agony as he eyes shot to life. I could actually see the soul leaving him as the sickle came down again.

Out of him, the body of an elfish creature came out.

"What's this? Celeste? Who is this figure?"

"I am a creation… of Xavier the Truthfinder, and… Celeste. I am the subconsciousness of XT-421." The being explained.

I gasped, as did the rest of THEA, _My dad had a soul? He wasn't just thinking metal?_

"It is fine… kill me. I did what I did for Xavier, and Xavier has let the connection die between us. He is waiting for Julie… I am useless now." It said.

The shadow looked confused, hesitating with the sickle, but soon brought it down on the creature, making parts of the transparent flesh vanish entirely, the being screamed its last scream before its head came off.

Then, the sickle-bearing shadow approached the shell of my father, built by the devil of his realm. Two more shadows appear, each holding different weapons, with one, a hammer, and the other, a pair of pliers.

The three set out on my father, who was now thrashing about, and began to bash, beat, and break, him.

Swinging and gashing and hacking about, the creature that was my father shrieked in animalistic horror. It was a slaughterhouse.

Finally, when a strange blue ball was introduced into the weaponry, XT stopped moving. The ball absorbed all of the energy, back-up and all, and halted everything going on inside of him. I could see it, I could feel it. My father was gone.

No longer did I receive any goofy messages from him, no longer did I angrily ignore them, no longer did he rave about how wonderful Julie was, nothing.

He was dead. I watched him die!

_No, my father can't be dead… no way… no way… he's still there… this is all some prank, right? Besides, I'm not even a part of THEA, that statement doesn't mean anything to me! I'm the love bug!_

I stood up, and fled immediately.

"Quasar!" James shouted behind me, chasing me down.

"He's not dead! He's faking!" I declared, rushing off, I was going to do something rash to make my father stop his sick joke. I was going to get a boyfriend!

* * *

_Present day_

* * *

That was 7 years ago, and now, and I hate myself for what I did. The Mythic ones couldn't try me, as I wasn't a part of THEA, but they let me off with a warning.

Now I trudge through the ashes of my mother's world, unseen and doing nothing but looking for anything of my mother's worth value to save as a keepsake, there is nothing, however. Another nuclear blast wiped it all away.

"Quasar." A voice sounded behind me. I cringed; no one was supposed to know I was here.

Behind me, I saw, was my biological creator, Celeste.

"Celeste… what are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on my daughter, is that a crime?" Her voice soothed me.

"No…" I muttered.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Celeste had been stripped of most of her power in the past few years, preventing her from being much greater than I was, or my father, my _late_ father.

"Searching. Julie _was_ a great person, and I want something non-electronic to remember her by…"

"Ah, I might know of something… Follow me."

So I followed her, wandering almost aimlessly across the ashes of the house that once belonged to my parents.

"Celeste…" I started; something had been bugging me for 7 years.

"Yes Quasar?" The golden, yet dimmed, character chirped.

"XT had a person, a soul, inside him, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did. That was the key to creating him, and James too, and Anna, Lance, Lily, Gannon, and Xenophon."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"You never would've understood. The very concept of having another being inside of a practically lifeless robotic shell would drive you all insane."

"So… there is another soul… controlling me?"

"No. Not you. But James and XT and THEA, yes. They all have their heroes helping them." Celeste didn't look at me as she answered. She just floated onwards through the rubble.

"Wait, why not me? Shouldn't I be Xavier's daughter?" I asked, hopping over another piece of debris.

"No. You are not. You are XT's daughter, and XT was a robot. You are… different, as you can already tell. You see, XT battled his whole life with the concept of trying to truly imitate and create emotions within himself, and he was a good copycat, letting Xavier help him with that. But you, you actually feel emotions, don't you?"

"Yeah… like right now, I'm depressed beyond comprehension."

"Exactly. You were made to do that, you are not just a robot Quasar, you're something more inside. You have a soul of your own."

"A soul of my own?" I asked mindlessly, that didn't make sense, I was just a robot! We robots don't have souls…

"It is time for me to go…" She calmly stated. "The memento is around here somewhere, I'm sure of it. Good luck Quasar, and leave when you can, this is a dangerous place, for you and for anything you might find." With that, she smiled, and vanished upwards.

I sighed, watching her go, and continued my search. In front of me, a small half a hut lie, and the door was already smashed in. No one was around, I knew it. On planet earth, on this side of New York, there was one being alone, and that was me. Only about 2 percent of the human race actually existed still, most of it, the bulk of America, was wiped out in nuclear explosions.

I ventured forth into the hut, and peered around. Nothing was to be found. As I dejectedly turned around, I noticed a bookcase covering the smallest lip of a hole in the ground. _Nothing better to do… besides, there might be something down there._ I hopped down into the hole, which descended a good 50 feet.

Then, within that hole, I was amazed. I knew this hut was once my parent's. They had a small hut, and it was spread widely from the most recent bomb, all operated from a robotic launching system. In that hole, in front of me, a door stood, fully intact, and high tech. Like, something my dad would've built, but in a style that was unlike my father's.

On the side of it, the handwriting of a 20 year old human girl, "Julie's: Keep Out!"

My stepmother knew how to build Sci-fi doors, which operated like doors from Rinoco. Surely she had to have had XT's help, but it appeared to have no trace of XT on it. I approached the door and attempted to open it properly. A keypad shot out, asking for a password. I decided it was time to put my hacking skills to the test on this door.

I placed a finger over a wire, and watched the files flow into my green eyes.

"First digit… F."

"Second digit… L."

FL, great, I had no idea how long this was going to be, but I could tell it was some secret of Julie's.

"Next digit… I."

FLI? What?

T-S-C-E-L-I-A were the preceding digits.

I stood in horror as I entered that password.

FLITSCELIA. That was my middle name that I had rejected long ago. My stepmother used it as the password to guard all of her secret belongings.

I fell to my knees as the door sputtered open, wishing desperately that I had tear ducts.

I stood to my feet and slowly entered the near ancient room. There was a small bed in the corner, comfily fitting for two, a picture on the wall of me, my dad, and Julie, yellowed out with old age, and a TV, plugged into a small outlet that also led to something else in the room other than a lamp.

The room was dimly lit and smelled like a corpse, but it was rather homey. A DVD player was on and in pause on the TV, a girl in a blue robe sat in this very room on the bed on the screen.

I slowly pressed play, watching the rest of the movie.

"July 16, 2014, 3:47 AM. I don't know how it happened, or how he didn't notice, but I managed…" Julie, the girl in the film, plopped down on the bed, "to give birth to that child without him noticing."

"WHAT?!" I shrieked.

"Never before have I had sexual intercourse with a live being, it was always XT. I came close, and have been raped before, but that was long ago, anyways… In these past few nights, XT is not with me… I was on some form of anesthesia… when it happened, but, I had a Caesarian Section done on me, and out he came. Someone, or something, helped me, and helped me build this shelter for him, but… I don't know… I don't care at this point."

The screen buzzed and then suddenly Julie reappeared.

"July 21, 2014, 5:19 PM. Something bad is happening. XT's gone, the sky is red, news reports all over the world are telling me the end is near… I don't want to die… I don't want him to die either… someone out there… save me… XT… where are you?"

"What was my dad doing? He wasn't at the trial yet…"

I pressed play again, and watched Julie's panic grow as a nuclear explosion shook the bunker.

"What the fuck is that?! Oh dear God… help me… I've got to get him out of here… he's merely five days old, and I am trying to give him a future…"

"July 22, 2014, 1:01 AM. He's asleep now, asleep for while… the radiation must've gotten to me or something, I think I'm dying. I went out to go get food from the house, and a bomb strike hit half the house, knocking it down, I was hardly alive enough to come back here. I can't watch over him for much longer… I've placed him in a stasis tube, letting him live on in suspended animation for a long while… he'll last a good hundred years as long as the power doesn't cut off… if only I could've told XT about our son… To anyone who may catch this tape, please, take my son, raise him, tell him who I am. XT, I hope it is you, so you can show our son how amazing his father is… I love you XT… and if not, I hope dearly it is my beloved stepdaughter Quasar… watch over your brother… he is very special to me and XT, even though your father never saw him… the boy's name is Inori. It is, I think, Japanese for prayer, which is certainly a fitting name in a given situation like this… please, someone, anyone, take my son, raise him, let him grow into a strong young man… anyone… please… ohh… I need to sit down…"

White noise was all that was left of the DVD.

I looked back at the outlet in the wall, a big cord came out and led to the other corner, where, suspended in green liquid, was my little brother, purely made of flesh, hardly lit up in the light.

I walked up to the tube, and slowly watched my brother, hang in the liquid, bobbing up and down with infinitesimal movement. I followed his closed eyes, gazing on the bed, and saw a lump in the covers.

Horrified, I walked to the bed, and gently pulled the covers off. A blue gown covered a frail skeleton. It was my stepmother Julie.

Her voice echoed in my head from there, "watch over your brother…" "he is very special to me and XT." I fell to my knees again, wishing I was human enough to cry.

"It's all your fault Julie. I hate you. Why did you have to die? What did you have to die?! WHY CAN I NOT CRY FOR YOU!?!?! I LOVE YOU MOM!" I looked down at my body and became angry. Why couldn't I cry? I wasn't human.

"Why am I not human? I have this metal skin and armor on, that's why! I'll rip it all off!" I yelled, yanking at my breastplate, and tearing it off, revealing wiring and gears, pounding and clanking as I absorbed energy from my Arcanium heart. I ripped off my dress afterwards, it was red, metal, and skintight, not human like at all! I tore off my feet, humans didn't have triple spiked toes. And then, finally, I pulled down on my hat, my brain, the very processor of my existence, I tried to yank it down, over my head in a final attempt to kill myself. I heard the bending of metal, and that fueled me to pull harder.

Suddenly, a green glow overcame me, my circuits were overloading, and I passed out on the floor, crying some kind of blue liquid from my eyes.

I woke up, and my head felt very funny.

"Am I dead?" I asked, no one answered.

I held my head, and noticed my hat was curved down, a lot. I looked at my hands, and they seemed smoother, much smoother, non-jagged claws like they used to be, probably from being sanded down on ripping my armor off. I looked down next, and good heavens everything became freaky.

The wires were still able to be heard, but, they didn't appear. My skin was smooth everywhere down my chest now, the Arcanium heart was moved and not sticking out. I looked down one more, and place a smoother hand over my breast, yeah, I had a breast now, two of them. I poked it gently, and watched the skin bounced with lively fashion. I looked down further, and noticed human organs beneath me, the only possible and logical solution to this was that I evolved due to my state of emotional instability.

And I had toes. Even though I still had spiky shoulders, I had toes now, five of them on each foot. I looked like a naked human girl, with pointy ears, that is.

I looked into a mirror on the side of the room, and noticed one further detail. My eye panels were gone, and in their place, two lively eyes with bright green pupils, that, and my shoulder spikes and earrings were all blue now, saddened, like myself.

I had become human like.

I pondered this fact for a little bit. _Would I still be able to transform?_ I seemed to forget how to do that. It used to be second nature, but now, that entire ability appeared to no longer exist within me. My arms, still a bit mechanical, undoubtedly could still do something abnormal, but, other than that, I had just stripped myself of my abilities.

That was fine by me… I wanted to get rid of them to raise my little brother, Inori.

I approached the stasis tube again, and pressed a few buttons on the bottom of the tank, mentally able to know how to operate the machine still. The green liquid fell slowly, and the tube opened with my little brother laying on his side, still a baby not more than 6 days old.

I picked him up and looked at him. I would've held great contempt for this child had Julie still been alive, as it was a fleshie, and I've always hated fleshies. But, I myself was one now. And I didn't care what my brother was, I was going to love and care for him like he was both my own child, and my little brother.

Quietly, the room was filled with a new noise, the sound of a crying baby. I pulled Inori close to my chest and hugged him tightly, but not to cause pain.

"Shush… Everything's going to be ok Inori… sister's here…" I couldn't tell if he wanted to be fed, or wanted to be with his mother, but, I was going to help him either way.

_C'mon! I know I can feed this child…_ I mentally declared, sitting down on the bed, leaving room for Julie's body. I let Inori press his face over my new mammary gland, and waited. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to help this baby grow, and I knew mothers did something like this.

Inori tried to get something from me, and I think I gave it to him, but I can't be sure. I felt like something was leaving my skin at that point, but I didn't care, as long as Inori was fed properly. Then, suddenly, this massive wave of some feeling came over me. I held the baby close and felt a motherly bond coming over me. Then, suddenly, I cried. Water came out of my eyes, and I half smiled.

The moment Inori was done, I pulled him off me, and realized something again.

I looked, and partially was, a naked human girl. I needed clothes.

I looked around, and only one piece of clothing could be found, Julie's death robe. Gently, I set Inori down, and began to slide Julie's rotted body out of it, with a good rinse, it wouldn't smell, and besides, the deep blue coloring matched my spikes. Besides, with this dress, Inori might remember his wonderful caring mother, for those five days he was with her.

The skeleton was still intact as I slid the dress onto myself; it fit well, and covered all, so I wouldn't need anything else.

I picked Inori up and began to walk out of the small tomb, sealing it as I went. If I still got all my energy from sunlight and Arcanium, then I wouldn't need anything if I walked outside, and in Inori fed through me, however that worked, then we wouldn't need anything.

But we did need a way off of this planet…

"_It isn't a safe place here… for you, and for whatever you may find…"_

I climbed up a ladder, leading up to the hut, and found myself under the bookshelf again. I heaved it aside with one hand, and sat down on the burned bed with Inori.

"Inori, you're a very special baby." I said in a childish voice, trying to make him smile, it wasn't hard. His happiness translated onto me, and I hugged him a bit tighter than I should have. "We're two of a kind I guess… children of XT-421… I love you Inori, I'm never going to let anything happen to you as long as I live." I kissed his head and hugged him close, resting my back on the bed for a long period of time, perhaps I was going to sleep. Either way, Inori cuddled up to my chest and fell asleep atop me. We slept like that for hours as brother and sister.


	10. Cal

_The following takes place 2 weeks after my tale._

_~Quasar_

* * *

For fifteen days now, Luna had been out of bed, and she spent as much time away from Brian as she could, to no avail. Brian followed her, or rather, appeared everywhere she went, intentional or non-intentional.

_Why won't he stop following me around? I'll never love him! Ever! He's so annoying! Why does he keep trying?_ Thoughts of similar content filled Luna's mind constantly.

"Hey Luna." Brian exclaimed, bright and cheerfully, stark comparison to Luna, the likes of whom had been depressed or upset since Stephen and Sarah told her to not pursue the grey captain ever again.

"Brian, go away, ok?"

"I'll try, but you keep appearing near me!" Brian smiled as he walked away.

"It's you who's following me!" She cried at him as he left.

_Good riddance!_

"_All members ready for missions report to the main courtyard for teaming._" Stephen announced over the intercom.

Luna sat up, remembering that Stephen told her to report for duty two weeks after she healed up. Glumly, she walked to the main courtyard.

* * *

Stephen sat down in his seat, pooped. Tails helped him finish the GUN truck, finally ready to roll out and be used. But that wasn't the real worry on his mind. Last night, he had gotten no sleep at all. He had been monitoring a strange weather anomaly all night, worried that it would wreck havoc on his castle in the sky.

A few large thunderstorms had merged together in one night, and continued to get larger, forming a massive super cell in the atmosphere around the castle. Luckily, they lived through it. Stephen had to use some of the more powerful, and less stealthy engines to get out of the cloud before it caused problems, but they weren't detected, and that was a good sign.

Still, the storm gave him a bizarre, worrisome premonition of an ill omen. Never before in his life had he ever seen such a large storm. He prayed that he wouldn't have to flee from it again.

Hopping out of his seat, he rolled, for he was too tired to walk properly, to his door, and helped himself out of it. With a small amount of pride in his step for still being up, he wobbly walked to the rally point of the groups.

* * *

Cal looked at the clock in his room, and then the musical piece that he had just composed, and grit his teeth together.

"Ooh! I'll have to finish it when I get back! It was so cute though!" He groaned and left his room, grabbing a few munchies, consisting mainly of Twinkies and Ding-Dongs, to add to his back pack for scavenger duty.

When he arrived to the groups, he noted that, as always, he was precisely two seconds late. Smiling at this, he stood next to his partner in crime, Brian, and let his grin widen.

"So, ready for this next mission?" He elbowed Brian, "or are you going to be having more _fantasies_ with Luna?" He snickered.

"Shut up Cal!" Brian replied a bit too loudly.

"Brian! Must I have to talk over you?" Stephen snapped, returning to his speech of the day.

_I swear though… I have to remember that pattern of notes… I'll play that cute song for Luna and Brian when they go on their first date… I even wrote it as the title! Heh heh! Those two hooligans have no idea how awesome I am._

"Ok everyone, pair up." Stephen ordered the moment his monologue was finished.

In seconds, the group divided into groups of two, leaving one figure in the middle of it all, away from everyone: Luna the Wolf.

"You've got to be kidding me…" She sighed. "Stephen, I don't have a group assigned. I am new, after all."

Stephen eyed the crowd, and chuckled. _Oh, she'll hate me forever…_

"Luna, you may not like it, but Brian and Cal are one of the best scavenger teams we have. I want you on scavenger right now, it is the perfect place for you to begin work. I'm placing you with those two for this mission, until you get the hang of things."

Luna stared into open space just above Stephen's head. _You have _GOT_ TO BE KIDDING ME!!! _

"I don't think that I can work with-"

"But they can work well with you. And as long as you take orders from those two boneheads, you'll all end up safely, and soundly, back in my base with lots of goodies to eat and plant."

"But-"

"The argument has ended, now go." Stephen pointed, holding Sarah's hand tightly.

Luna trudged, defeated, to the area around Brian.

"No way! This is like déjà vu! We're a team again!" Cal cheered. "So Brian, what are you going to do to her, as she _has_ to listen to you?"

Brian turned bright red, "Cal, shut it. Luna, I'm not going to make you do anything, I swear. Well, if you're life is in danger, then I'll make an exception. Just follow us, and try to keep up."

_Did he just doubt my speed? I am way faster than he is! He has no muscle to begin with!_

"Fine." Luna grumbled bitterly. The three walked over with the crowd to the departure station, all readying themselves to leave.

* * *

"Stephen, you seem a bit less springy than normal." Sarah cooed into his ear.

"Sarah… I haven't slept in about 30 hours. I'm very tired." Stephen tripped forwards, pulling Sarah down with him.

"Are you sure you want to do this mission then?"

"Maybe not… it may be best to just hang out and sleep."

"C'mon big guy, let's get you to my place..." Sarah started walking, which was equivalent to a normal person's sprint.

"No, let's go to my tower, you don't spend much time there." Stephen offered, guiding Sarah to his command station.

* * *

"Luna, put this on." Brian said, mechanically, but it was obvious he placed some effort in making it friendly. This procedure was too familiar to him.

Luna wedged her way into the backpack, and strapped it on tightly. She grabbed a few tools; a screw driver, a hammer, a pick, and a small laser saw. Securing them into her backpack, she looked to Cal for further instructions.

Brian gave her guidance before, however.

"Luna, follow me, Cal needs a bit of extra time to fix his pack up." He explained, pointing to the desserts. "We're going to get you a board really quick."

Luna found herself grudgingly obedient to Brian as he led her through a crowd of people to a small hut where Extreme Gears were being handed out.

"You see, the machine in there will read your height and weight, and will calibrate it to an Extreme Gear, from there, all you have to do is not fall off. I'll help you ride it, if you wan-" Brian humbly offered.

"No thanks." The reply came almost sooner than Brian had finished asking.

Brian nodded his head, and let Luna step inside the hut, and pick her board out.

Lights whirred around her as she stepped onto the large pad in the middle of the room as the mechanical voice instructed her to. A few seconds after standing still, a clunking noise could be heard around her. In moments, a small, relatively flat board came out of a chute and landed in a rack like a gumball from a gumball machine.

Taking this board, she left quietly.

_That was weird… I'll bet Stephen made it…_ She thought in wonder.

"Well, ready?" Brian's smile was as calm as ever.

Luna held her nose up and looked away, waiting for Cal.

"What're we waiting for?" Cal grinned wickedly as he hopped between them.

"You." Luna didn't let her head fall.

"Well, not anymore, c'mon, off to the launching station!" Cal exclaimed excitedly as he pointed to an area where many were congregating.

The moment the trio arrived, Lucien was sending the groups off.

"Ok, we'll have a blank spot in GUN radar in a few moments… get ready. On my command, jump." For a moment, everyone in the area was absolutely silent.

"Go! Go! Go!" Lucien shouted at them, about seven teams jumped out a chute with their boards underneath them. Suddenly, Lucien called out again, "STOP!! STOP!! We've reached GUN radar territory, please refrain from jumping."

Cal, Brian and Luna readied their boards.

"When he says go, you jump down that chute, you understand?" Cal asked sternly, much experience was embedded into his tone, too much for a kid.

"Yeah Cal, I get it." Luna rolled her eyes.

"And you do know how to use that board, right?" Brian asked worriedly.

"Excuse me Mr. Wanna-be-my-boyfriend, I was once real good at using a skateboard, and I have to assume this is hardly different." Luna stuck her nose up yet again.

"Yeah but-"

"Approaching GUN blank spot, teams get ready to depart on my mark!" A moment of silence again, and then, "GO! GO! GO!"

Luna, Cal and Brian hopped on their boards and charged to the chute.

Brian hopped down first, and then Cal shortly after. But by the time Luna dove in, Lucien shouted immediately after, "STOP! STOP! EVERYONE STOP!" The gates closed behind Luna, and chipped a small amount of the board off, not enough to cause a problem, however.

The trio plummeted down to the good ground, Cal and Brian battling it out to see who could achieve more flips before they got dizzy. Luna just shook her head at them, waiting for the right moment to use her board and stop the rapid descent.

"Brian! You're going to get yourself killed!" Luna shouted at the spinning fox hybrid.

"Ok, ok, fine… Cal, let's stop." Brian spun to a stop, and activated his thrusters, curving him to the ground. Luna and Cal followed in suit, and raced besides him, onwards to a city in the middle of a forest.

* * *

"Stephen…" Sarah turned on her side to look him in the eyes.

"Yeah Sarah?" one of his arms was wrapped twice around her waist as they lay on his bizarrely shaped bed.

"This is something that's been bothering me for quite some time now… If I am Sarah the Hedgehog, and Luna is Luna the Wolf, and Cosmo is Cosmo the Seedrian, what are you? I mean, we all have last names, and you've pretty much accepted mine… but, what would you epithet be?"

"I- I never thought about that… I'm just Stephen," he laughed, "gee… I'll have to think about that one for a while… I'm not Stephen the Hedgehog, I know that much… nor am I a bird… fox, wolf, plant… I'm a creation… Stephen the creation? Bah, that's silly and lame. What do you think?"

"Stephen the Wonderful?"

Stephen rolled his eyes, "no."

"Stephen the Great? Stephen the Cool?"

"No Sarah, those won't do, it must be a species, or something close to it…" Stephen sighed, thinking heavily.

"I know you'll come up with something! You always do!"

Sarah nudged Stephen playfully, and then she realized, as his face fell on its side, he was already asleep.

"Sleep tight Stephen…" Sarah kissed him on the cheek, and then looked back up at the ceiling, attempting to get some shut eye.

* * *

"Cal! Over here!" Brian whispered loudly to his comrade, beckoning him over with one hand to a kitchen sink.

"Thanks buddy." Cal responded as he pulled out a jug from his backpack. Water was one of the key items they needed on the ship. They went through plenty, and the vapor they collected from the sky, and the water that they refurbished was just never enough to sustain the growing community.

Every mission-goer was required to fill up at least one 3 gallon jug, and bring it back to base every mission. Only the skilled got sent to places where water was always available, like residential homes, and facilities.

"No one can rob like we do." Cal sighed in triumph.

"I feel bad about it though… I mean, I wouldn't want anyone stealing my goods…" Luna complained.

"Well Luna," Cal countered, "we steal from those who are twelve times more fortunate than us, and the same breed of trash that wiped out 99 percent of all anthropomorphic creatures as we know it. And guess what, Luna, you happen to be one of that single percent that survived. Do you still think they should keep their goodies?"

Luna shut her mouth.

"Cal, shove it. They're good people. They just are very, very, very mislead. I had friends that were human before you know; they were nice, friendly folks." Brian argued as he took a few forks and knives to melt down later as scrap.

"Yeah, yeah, they killed my parents and enslaved me. Just the nicest!" Cal sarcastically agreed while shoving cereal boxes into his pack.

"Uh, guys? Why do we do this in the middle of the day?" Luna asked, looking out a window at the row of houses outside, all glistening in the sun.

"Because no one thinks we're dumb enough to do it." Cal answered with laughter.

"What?"

"Ok, Luna," Brian took a step closer to her, "it goes like this. During the day, everyone turns off their house alarms, and place their kids in daycares, and go to work. This leaves their houses empty, unguarded, and once you learn to pick locks, it isn't hard to break in at all."

"I guess I see the logic in it… is that why Stephen sends you guys here?" Luna started taking a few hot dogs from the freezer."

"Uh, Luna, don't take those, we don't take frozen stuff; it melts in the atmosphere…"

"Oh…" She placed it back in the fridge and reached for something else.

"And no, he expects us to go to places that are dark and scrounge for berries and stream water. Or go to dilapidated factories or workshops to get water, scrap and food. We are different. Cal wanted to steal from the humans, I didn't. But, it was easy, and we never really get caught, so it is safe…ish. That aside, GUN hardly patrols the streets, they're in the forests and the outdoorsy places, not suburbia. I came up with the plan to rob in the day too…" Brian admitted modestly.

"Well I guess good work…" Luna complimented sheepishly.

"WAAAH!" A cry was heard from upstairs.

"Johnny… Shush!" A small voice silenced.

"What the heck was that?" Cal asked, walking up the stairs.

"No, Cal, don't…" Brian said, pulling him back and walking up slowly, his other hand grasping a bead on his belt.

"What is that?" Luna creeped up with them.

With Cal pinned against the wall, Brian chastised him for being reckless, "you're going to get yourself killed if you just walk into situations like that, you know it!"

Cal just rolled his eyes, the proceeded to watch Luna as she entered the room at the top of the stairs, across from where he was pinned down.

"Luna! Don't!" But she didn't listen.

Luna's head peeked in the door, and spied a baby in a cradle, crying.

"Oh! Isn't he the cutest thing!" Luna picked the baby up out of his crib and gently rocked him. "Aw!" She cooed, giggling lightly.

The baby's bright blue eyes stared up at her blankly, wondering if she was a safe creature to be around. But, once Luna buried her muzzle into the baby's belly, the giggles came from his mouth like no tomorrow.

"Don't touch him!" Another voice yelled from across the room.

Luna, and now Cal and Brian, looked to the closet, where two eyes gleamed at them. A kid, a girl, stepped out of the closet and ran up to Luna and grabbed the kid from her.

"Don't you touch my baby brother!" She growled, her body trembling with fear.

"Geez kid, I love babies, I couldn't help it." Luna explained.

"Yeah, you probably eat them!" The kid took a step back.

"No, I am mainly a vegetarian, believe it or not. I won't harm him."

The girl only held the child closer and retreated to the closet.

"I can't wait for GUN to get over here and rip your faces off." She spat.

"You didn't call GUN did you?" Brian chirped worriedly.

"I did the moment you dropped our fork! You darn animals just steal all of our stuff, and then use it in your underground villages… you eat kids that run away!" The girl sputtered, Brian felt pity on all of the lies that had been said about them.

"Listen, human girl," Cal looked her in the eyes, picking her up off of the ground, "I have killed humans, but I didn't make the first move on them. Your people killed my parents, and then used me as a slave to do housework for all my childhood years! Do you want me to kill your parents in front of you?" The girl burst into tears, "DO YOU?! Answer the question!"

"No…" she sobbed.

"Yeah… I cried too. Here…" Cal reached into his bag, and grabbed one of the uneaten Twinkies. "Take this, and remember us. Take this card, and give it back to us after the war, we'll compensate everything we can." Cal sighed, handing the Twinkie and the card to the girl.

"We're not bad people…" Brian sighed, walking out of the room with the gang.

Sirens were heard in the distance.

"Shit." Cal growled, starting to run back to the porch, where the boards were.

"What do we do?" Luna cried.

"Well, we have to run, we can't use the boards until we're out of their sights, so we have to incapacitate them or out run them, and seeing as they have cars, that may be a problem." Brian explained.

"Into the forest." Cal barked, grabbing the boards and leading everyone to the back door.

With a kick, the door came down, and they three charged out of the house, into the forest, either their salvation, or a death trap.

Minutes past of continuous running, and the noises were still catching up to them slowly but surely.

"We're going to have to fight them eventually…" Cal announced.

"Should we hide?" Luna asked curiously. She desperately wanted to stop running.

Brian looked at Luna, and analyzed her fatigued running form. "Yeah… we ought to stop. To the trees." He added in whisper.

With a jump, Cal leaped into the tree above him in a single bound. Brian ran to a tall tree and scuffled up to a branch out of view. But Luna, the likes of whom was unfit and uneducated in the arts of hiding in the trees with seconds of time to do so, found herself stuck at the bottom of a tree stump with the GUN policemen rushing to their position at a rapid pace.

_She's not going to make it… People don't look up ever, they always look down when looking for hiding places, that's why the trees work so well… On the floor, she's a sitting duck…_ Brian thought hopelessly. _But if I were to hide her, she may have a chance._

Without another thought or word, Brian leapt from his spot, and dove into Luna, tackling her into a bush. He landed on her in the most awkward position possible, limb over limb, but the two shut up quickly due to a signal from Brian.

"The running stopped!" A gruff male voice sounded in the area around them. Luna's eyes widened with fear, and began to water slightly. _I don't want to die…_ She thought worriedly.

_Unbelievable! _Cal thought suddenly, almost laughing amidst the horror of the GUN patrol in the area. _I can't believe he just did that! I cannot believe he had the audacity to dive over her and risk his life for her. But ah, that is the way of the lovebird it seems… I mustn't make a sound… if they hear me, we're all doomed…_

Slowly, Brian began reaching for a bead on his belt, in any vain hopes that he could immobilize the troops.

_No, don't move! They'll hear you!_ Cal mentally shouted, wishing desperately that Brian could hear him.

A few more inches and the bead would be in Brian's hand.

_SNAP_

"THERE! IN THAT BUSH!"

"FIRE!"

"NO!" Cal roared, reaching for the gun in its holster at his side.

In a single, deft move, he dove from the tree he was in and took aim at the man with his hand on the trigger aimed at Luna and Brian, landing in the most logical position to save his friends, right in the line of fire.

_ZAP_

There were six men, all with laser rifles aimed at Luna and Brian, Cal hand a gun that could only shoot one person per shot, and it took at the minimum, .2 seconds to reload. One man fell with a hole in his chest, the other five managed to fire, and all of their shots, however inaccurate, made their target. The bead was launched by then. In the shock and confusion of all that happened, Brian managed to pull the bead and hurl it across the forest, landing on the other side of the small clearing.

Cal didn't yelp. He fell to his knees. One horn was blown off, that was the first shot, the second, third, and fourth shots made their marks in his heart, stomach, and liver, and the last shot went clean through his skull, killing him instantly. All six shots, however, had been stopped the moment they hit Cal.

Blood seeped into the ground where the young bull fell, and Luna screamed as she realized he'd been killed. The bead had begun to work its magic by that point, and Brian had already rushed to Cal's side, but it was far too late.

"CAL! CAL!" Luna wailed, running to him.

Brian just looked at his friend, and his frame began to shake. Anger coursed through his veins like fire, consuming him, making him wish he could kill all of the helpless humans paralyzed beneath him. One noise made him snap back to reality.

"I heard a gunshot!" The voice sounded

"We've got to move." He mumbled, grabbing Cal's pack and the boards, deciding to use them now.

"Dead…" Luna emptily garbled under her breath. Brian picked her up with one arm, and hopped on the boards, linked together as one, and zoomed through the forest with rapid speed, ignoring protocol to get home ASAP.

The moment he cleared the forest, and found himself facing the ocean, he zoomed upwards, and pressed a few buttons on his wristwatch.

"STEPHEN!" He roared over the Extreme Gear, fighting back tears, "I NEED YOU TO PICK US UP RIGHT NOW!" He flipped a switch on his watch, sending out a signal to be picked up as fast as they could.

In moments, Tails and the Tornado retrieved the high-flying Luna and Brian.

"What's wrong you two?" Tails asked as they climbed into the high-speed jet.

Luna was going into a partial state of shock, breathing very deeply, and having a blank stare to her eyes. Brian held her close to him as he strapped her in on top of him. Finally, tears burst from his eyes as he let the boards and the backpacks, the third one without an owner.

The tears came out in waterfalls as he said it, "Cal's dead, dad!" He held Luna close as she began crying with him.


	11. Welcome Back

"Wait, what?!" Tails threw the plane into autopilot, dodging the GUN satellites and radar systems to talk to his son.

"Cal… he died dad…" Luna seemed hurt by the very words of it and gripped Brian's leafy fur tighter, she needed something to grab.

"How?! How in the world did this happen?!" Tails barked, angry and shocked.

"A kid called on us, and we started running, I dove for Luna because she couldn't climb the tree fast enough, and hid her in a bush. I decided to try to hit the GUN soldiers with a bead, you know? But they heard me, and fired, Cal jumped in front of the blast to save us…"

"It's all my fault!" Luna wailed, the first amount of intelligible noise since they left Brian.

"No it isn't Luna, had I not moved, they wouldn't have fired, I'm sure of it." Brian growled back through too emotionally disturbed to keep him own feelings in check; never would he growl at Luna.

Luna wailed louder at the possible truth, they were _both_ to blame for his death, for causing him to sacrifice his own life for theirs.

"Calm down you two, we'll be home soon, and we can report this. Once that's done, you guys can have a week or so off to cool down. You've been through a lot…"

Tails frowned. He hadn't known Cal all too well, but he knew he was best friends with his son. The old fox would miss that kid.

* * *

At the Gun Base, all was going well. The nuclear reactor was feeding the robot energy, hoping to restart it somehow. Damian watched the alien creation with wonder, analyzing its menacing demeanor, waiting for it to do something. Every now and again, its eyes would flicker, but nothing more than that.

Most people were bunkered down for the night. The forecast showed that the Super Cell was headed their way, and many wanted to be ready for when it hit. So, until then, they slept, regaining their energy.

Damian, however, knew better as to how fast it was moving, and watched his outdoor video screen, viewing the tempest as it roared in.

Rained poured off of roofs in heaps, and flooded storm drains instantly. Thunder boomed, waking everyone from their slumber, and lightning flashed, surging through the air and waking all whom didn't wake up from thunder.

Damian looked at _his_ weather report, and noted that this was only the first sliver of the storm. They had a good few hours of this remaining.

* * *

Stephen had woken the second he heard. Cal was dead. _I trusted those two so much… I guess the best of the best can fall sometimes… Cal and Brian were the best scavenger team this base has ever seen… I'd better make some memorial speech for him later…_

Presently, he was in the hangar. No everyone knew the policy on the dead: no bodies must be left. It was a withstanding fear of Stephen's that GUN would somehow manage to dissect a body and figure how where it had been living, so, he personally sought out the dead bodies and cremated them, or incinerated them. It was a grueling task, but he was cut out to do it. Destroying the dead didn't bother him like it did others.

Carefully lodging himself within his own personal aircraft, Stephen used the one foot that was outside the vessel to open the bay doors. With the doors clinking open, he slid himself inside his ship, the Neon Vex, and activated the engine.

The Neon Vex was unlike any ship known to Mobius. Stephen's mind hand birthed it, and birthed it for the sole purpose of him using it. No one else could use this ship. Or rather, anyone with three legs, each measuring at about 4 feet long, an inch in diameter with seven toes on each, along with a flat face, and three tentacle arms, each about 6 feet long, and 2 inches in diameter, and a long, tubular body with a trunk only about a foot in diameter and two feet long, could fit in it and drive it.

The ship was translucent in some senses; it had a cloaking capability that made it blend in with the environment. In the docking bay, it seemed to be a lime green, however. It hand three legs coming off of a ball shaped body, and it stood like that. The in flight, the legs would lock forward, shaping into wings, and forming a rocket-like craft to fly. Each leg had exactly one gun, and each was controlled by Stephen's feet, as were the thrusters. The wing's maneuverability was controlled by his arms, each fitting into each wing/leg.

With the doors opened, and the Neon Vex unlocked from the dock, Stephen's craft began to hover smoothly, and float its way out the doors. In moments, Stephen was airborne. His face peeked out a window in the 'bottom' of the craft, but, while flying, it was definitely facing forwards.

Searching the immediate area around where Cal, Luna, and Brian were scavenging, thick into the GUN radar, Stephen located a battalion of GUN soldiers, all with their medical teams doing exactly what Stephen feared, examining the dead body of Cal.

"Nice shot to the men who fired. The thing was killed nearly instantly." A medical practitioner announced with near glee in his voice.

"There were two others with it, a strange fox with flora around him, and a brown wolf, both looked rather scrawny." One of the men that shot reported.

"How did they get away?"

"That fox thing paralyzed us with some bizarre gas…"

"Why didn't you use your gasmasks?"

"WE didn't have time to- what the hell is that?"

Stephen had had enough of their talk, and began charging his cannons. When hovering, the lasers of his craft came together, and made a linked, golden beam from the now bottom of the ship. The men all saw as the lasers charged up, but had little idea what to do by the time the cannon opened fire.

A beam of golden light, combined of the other three colors, fired down upon Cal's deceased body, and burned it to a char. The doctor that was examining him leaped back, giving Stephen a clean shot. The moment the body was destroyed beyond recognition, the men had regained their bearings, and armed their guns to open fire on Stephen.

Ready for this, Stephen flipped switches with all of his feet, and his 'wrists', each controlling the cannons' aims, began to lock in on the humans around him. Then, he pulled the triggers.

Stephen's reactions were through the roof, in a mere half second he had managed to do that, which included changing the weapons' attacks from a lethal ray to an immobilizing electrifying goop, and took aim at everyone.

In the next half second, he had fired the purple ooze onto everyone and everything in sight, shorting electrical equipment, and sticking people to the ground with a mild electrical tingle in their skin.

A moment later, and he already switched into a mobile form, and began to rocket back to base.

* * *

Brian was in his room, blankly looking at his wall. Hours ago, he was jolly, carefree, and euphoric about the idea of bringing Luna along to one of their missions.

_There isn't a 'their' anymore._ He thought sadly, letting tears well up in his eyes again. Cal was dead.

Cal was dead, and he wasn't coming back.

How vividly he remembered it still. He glanced up just in time to see those blasts go clean through his chest and skull. _Cal…_

"WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?!" He angrily yelled to no one.

A few faint knocks on his door brought him back to reality.

"Brian… c-can I come in?" It was Luna.

_Luna probably needs a shoulder to cry on… she's coming to me… I can't cry in front of her… I can't._

"Hold on a minute." He breathed, gently wiping the tears from his eyes, hoping that they weren't agitated or red. Pressing a button on his remote, he let Luna in.

"Hi Brian." She calmly said, it had been a few hours since Cal's death, and he was certain that she had calmed down since then.

"Hey Luna." He replied, shallow of any emotion. He found it was easier to squelch all of them rather than let them all consume him.

"I'm sorry." She sat on the bed next to him, looking away, "I'm horribly sorry."

"You did nothing." The tears were coming out of his eyes slightly, and he tried to hide it.

"Yes I did!" Now they poured of her tear ducts and she began to wail again. She lunged and Brian and hugged him tightly. "That boy was so nice and kind and because I was along, and because you had to save me, those men came and took away something amazing from this world."

"I know…" Brian's eyes erupted as well. "Did you like him?" Luna blinked at Brian blankly, the tears stopping due to extreme curiosity. "I mean," he sniffled, "did you like him, like want to date him like him?"

"No." Luna's tone was suddenly stern. "I never liked him like that. In fact, I always thought he was far too young for me."

Brian let loose a sigh of relief, amidst the sadness, he still felt jealous over Luna, and was afraid of her ever seeing it. _Stressful times do a lot to people…_

"There was, however…" Luna got quiet, and her tears settled too, "two things that I truly hated about Cal."

"Luna, I don't want to hear thi-" Brian was unable to finish his sentence.

Luna's mouth was over his, kissing him.

_What the _fuck_ just happened?_ Brian mentally asked himself. Luna broke the kiss and spoke.

"One, how he was always right about you and me, and I just didn't want to admit it to myself." Luna moved in again, this time tears in her eyes, "and two, how it took his death for me to realize how much I do care for you…"

"You like me?" Brian's tone suddenly changed.

"Maybe it is a desire to get out of the stress, but yes. I just never wanted to let myself like a nerd like yourself. I don't give a damn anymore though. You don't live long enough on this vessel to pick your lovers."

_Oh, so that's how it is… she just wants me because I want her and there aren't enough guys to do that with…_

"And since you obviously care so much for me, that you'd risk never getting a girlfriend and never being able to have sex, or anything like that, well… that's a bigger sacrifice than anyone's ever done for me. I didn't really realize it… but… I don't know… I don't think it's love… but… I like you Brian, a lot. And yes… if you want to do all of those crazy things that lovers do with me, go right ahead, just, let me… know… I guess…"

Brian kissed her and held her tightly, "if only Cal were here to see this…" Tears flooded from his eyes, and Luna followed suit once more.

The two sat there on the bed crying for a long, long time, not doing any of the activities Luna had hinted at.

* * *

Back at the GUN base where the robot was held, problems were spawning left and right. First and foremost, the storm was reaching its climax. If it was any other storm, this wouldn't be a problem, but on this particular one, it was a massive issue. The pinnacle of this storm included a variety of tornadoes, which the base was safe from. The power lines connecting to the base, however, weren't. The base was running on emergency backup energy, and sadly, that included the nuclear power plant in their backyard too.

That was the other problem, the nuclear power plant. Due to the high voltage electricity, which occasionally sparked through the building, causing serious damage, the power plant was starting to malfunction, a meltdown, so to speak.

This then led to a surge of people trying to rush into the power plant to fix it, but there was a problem there too. However few people were in the power plant were trapped there; the path between the two facilities was flooded, and leaking into both buildings, causing even more issues such as short-circuiting and ruination of the infrastructure.

"Shut it all off!" Omen demanded, hoping the people in the nuclear plant would understand and solve the problem of the nuclear explosion.

"No you fool! If you shut off the plant, then there is nothing to stop the explosion from happening, besides, they can't hear you!" Damian growled. All of the telephone lines were dead and the radios were not working due to too much static and radiation in the air.

Omen looked around and sighed hopelessly.

"WHY DOES NOTHING EVER WORK RIGHT?!" He yelled out in anguish.

_BOOM!_

A flash of lightning, followed immediately by the thunder ripped through the air and the lights flickered again.

Unbeknownst to just about everyone, the robot was getting a charge out of this. The eyes flickered, and the veins of green energy shimmered dimly, it was more power than it had had in a long, long while, and it wanted more.

Another lightning flash struck the power plant, and this time, something happened.

The sirens went off, demanding an evacuation of the area. Omen, upon hearing this and the facts, realize how stupid it was to place that on the plant's design. There wouldn't be time to run away at that point.

The sirens going off around them, the nuclear physicists operating the power plant watched in horror as their machine began to go crazy.

Another lightning bolt struck the cord leading from the plant to the base, and the robot's eyes burned brightly with a green flame. _ENERGY! NEED MORE!_ It mentally growled, and ferociously sent forth a negative voltage through the wires, demanding more power.

The physicists looked to the middle of their nuclear power plant and saw something rather shocking. Now, instead of the nuclear power fueling the turbine to generate power, raw purple energy sparked towards the radioactive material within the center of the reactor. Slowly, the reactor became red with heat, yearning to explode in a fiery wrath.

The energy hardened around the reactor, forming a shell, and the physicists heard the explosion. Nothing exploded though. The shell broke, and changed to a line green color, flowing back through the turbine which had melted completely and back through the wires to the robot.

Yet another bolt of lightning struck the plant, and then, only then did the plant collapse, killing all within it.

The surge of all of the energies found their way into the power tubes connecting to the robot, now pulsing with power. The batter legs of the machine slowly began to regenerate, linking back together, and connecting with itself once more. The arms too, and the body, all back into place.

The dents in its face were pushed out, and the teeth in its jaw realigned, jagged and sharp. Slowly, it pulled the tubes towards itself, and ripped them out of their sockets, feet and arms.

Many scientists gawked at the technology at work, watching it crack through the transparent metal casing surrounding it as if it were an egg. Omen stood at the top of a railing overseeing the scene, awe and terror filling his mind.

The moment the robot was free, it took a few jerky steps out of its capsule, and let its neck move its head even more shakily, looking at everyone in the room. Rapidly, its arms shot up, and its wrists flicked, revealing a variety of small guns on its forearms, aimed at a vast majority of the room.

"Kiiieetsna…" It shuttered, still glaring at everyone in the room.

"What are you?" Omen asked despite his fear.

The robot looked up at him, narrow green eyes piercing what little soul he had. "Eta? Va'etsu?" All weapons aimed at Omen.

Many in the room gasped and cringed in fear.

"I am Omen, I am the General here."

"General." The robot's eyes widened with fear and respect, and it bowed suddenly. "General…" A quick recollection of thoughts, and its mind recalled something.

"_Only the General can give me orders." _flashed through its head.

Quietly, it began mumbling. "Police force… peace… achieved… extreme violence… iron fist… General… Arcania… Rinoco… I…"

Omen approached the robot, which, at the moment seemed to be lost in a state of confusion.

"What are you?"

"I… I… I am… I am…" It's eyes flashed around the room, and a piece of debris caught its eye. A bridge from an upper level crashed down on the one just above the ground level, forming a massive, steel 'X'. Suddenly, images crackled into its mind, an 'X', a 'T', and then a series of numbers, 0 to 999.

Four hundred and twenty one. _That was my number. Xavier the Truthfinder… he is my base… I am a he… XT… Xavier the Truthfinder… I live to serve the General of the Rinocian Army… wait… The Rinocian Police… our codename…_ _I am an assassin and sniper and scout for the Rinocian Police. I am XT-421_.

"I am… XT…421, of the… Rinocian Police… my sole duty is to the General, and my job is to keep order and peace by all means necessary." The robot stared blankly at Omen.

_So… he thinks I'm the General, eh? That works nicely; he'll obey my every command._

"Orders, sir?" It asked, standing in the middle of the dank and dark room, water panging over its head at random intervals.

"Yes..." Omen smiled, "there is a rogue robot wander the planet known as Metal Sonic." _A good time to prove my worth of Damian Robotnik._ "Destroy him, and report back to me for further instructions."

"Acknowledged." XT-421 stood up straighter, getting rid of his hunchback, and threw out his massive arms. Wings unfurled from them, strong, purple, and powerful, rockets were seen activating on his feet, and in a blast of power, he shot through the roof like a lightning bolt, and soared away, letting the rain and cold into the building.

* * *

**Now, as if to be a total DB, I'm leaving for a week to spend some time with my girlfriend. Toodles!**


	12. Shadow

**Sorry for the wait, and well, I don't know what to say... I have been a bit gloomy since I left my girlfriend... it was heaven, and all we did was kiss and hold hands. Now I'm leaving on another vacation so I figured I'd leave you guys with another chapter/clifffhanger to think about.**

* * *

Stephen had arrived not but minutes ago, and was headed to see how his friends were faring with the death of Cal.

He approached the door with a sigh, Cal's death heavy on his heart and mind. _Those two are going to be a complete wreck… Heaven knows how hard this has been on them…_

"So guys," He opened the door, "how're you holding- WHAT IN THE HELL?!" Stephen's eye twitched, he caught the two in the middle of a _make out session?_

"Oh… um… uh…" Luna and Brian both sputtered out, Luna faintly smiling.

"KISSING?! Dear me, you HAVE gone insane over his death! Luna! You're KISSING him? What up?"

"Long story… I like him." She cuddled next to him and let out all of her air, "besides, he's really quiet comfortable to cuddle with when I need comforting."

"Well… I guess I… just never thought I'd live to see the day... that Brian would… kiss someone…" Stephen slowly let out.

"Hey!" Brian scowled. "Why are you here anyways?"

"I just wanted to know what you two wanted to do with Cal's stuff. You see, here, unless people have wills, their closest family and friends get to decide. A will hasn't been discovered, but, I figured you two were his closest friends, and would probably be the ones to go through his stuff to find one, in it exists, that is." Stephen scratched his head, the image of Luna and Brian's tongues coming together haunted him, it was too bizarre a sight, "so, what do you say? Want to go now? Or, do you guys need time?"

"We'll need time." Luna answered immediately, looking quickly at Brian with a smile on her face.

"Ok… then… don't do anything you'll regret later…" Stephen's eyes were wide and bulging as he left the room for his command station.

Luna fixed her gaze at Brian, and wondered aloud. "Do you want to… you know…"

"No, not yet. I truly enjoy cuddling with you, and the kisses make me feel ecstatic. I don't want to move too fast now…"

_He's so weird... well, at least… I don't lose my virginity… but, I must say, this weird kid is worthy of taking it. He's a noble guy, he won't hurt me…_

"Thanks." She whispered, eyes still a bit red from the tears.

* * *

Stephen slunk into his room and literally melted into his chair. It had been a long, stressful day, and it only seemed to be getting worse.

"Stephen." Lucien woke him from his dreamy reality where all was calm and peaceful.

"What?" Stephen groaned with the utmost disgruntled tone.

"There is a communication being made out to you, do you wish to answer?"

"Who is it?" Stephen perked up immediately.

"I'm not sure… the sender is only identified by a series of numbers, letters and symbols, makes little sense to me, I'm sorry."

"Wait, what series of numbers and symbols?" Stephen asked promptly, waking up entirely.

"It appears to be ULv1.0. Does that make sense to you?"

"Shadow! Put him through, quick!"

Slowly, a crackly image of the ageless legend appeared on his screen.

"Stephen, long time no see." The loner greeted.

"Same here. So, I know you don't reveal your location for nothing, what's up?"

"I'm getting strange readings from the mountainous region east of Malavar, readings that seem to be from my old foe Sonic. I am utterly curious, where is that blue fool?"

Stephen was silent for a moment. "He's right here in base."

More silence.

"What does that mean?" Stephen asked quietly.

"That means an old nemesis has resurfaced. Monitor my steps, normally I can handle anything, but Metal Sonic is not one to be trifled with…"

Shadow was gone, and a map appeared. A small red dot appeared over the deserts of Malavar, and it was rapidly approaching the mountains.

_He'd get pissed if I helped him... and if Sonic heard of this, he'd rush to the occasion… I'd best keep this quiet…_

"Lucien, speak to no one of this, ok?" Stephen ordered.

"As you command, master." And Lucien's image vanished from the table, focusing his mind elsewhere.

* * *

Shadow fiddled with his scanner as he skated. He needed to make it record a message to be sent at his command. He always did this, just in case he were to fall in battle, someone would be able to figure out what felled him, and how to defeat it. _Metal Sonic shouldn't be a problem. But… he hurt Sonic, and came close to defeating him more than once… I should still be a bit careful._

Shadow's meddling was completed, and the device was hooked up to his head, recording what he heard and saw, and a little red button on his temple ready to send all that had been recorded in an instant. He reached behind him and pulled out his Emerald. _Well, I have one advantage over that blue fool, and I don't mean Sonic the hedgehog._ He couldn't help but feel dirty about it, with a Chaos Emerald, he could do anything.

Racing onwards, he sought to meet his opponent. Metal Sonic was too dangerous to be kept alive, not to mention fast and perceptive.

* * *

Metal Sonic raced between the mountains. Where he was going didn't make sense. Sonic had been here, once, but how long ago he didn't know. Either way, he'd follow his tracks to space if he had to, to get him between his claws. Sonic _must_ be destroyed.

Suddenly, his scanners detected something, a hedgehog, coming at him at nearly 768 miles per hour, the speed of sound.

Sonic. It had to be Sonic.

Metal Sonic rushed to intercept the blue hedgehog, rocketing over a mountain to reach his target. On the other side of the mountain, however, no blue blur was detected.

Metal Sonic spun around, only to see a black hedgehog standing in a shadow.

"Chaos Spear!" He yelled, and a golden yellow dart was launched at Metal Sonic. The robot fell from the sky in which he hovered, and the hedgehog approached him.

"Piece of scrap." He turned away.

An iron grip on his left ankle made him realize he wasn't done yet.

"Why you! I am Shadow the Hedgehog! Fool!" Shadow turned around yet again, and charged the metal contraption. Metal hopped up quickly and countered Shadow, the two skating and boosting into one another, and getting nowhere.

_He is fast._ Shadow thought emotionlessly, speed wasn't going to win him this battle, but weapons and Emeralds might. With a sudden jerk, the two went racing sideways, darting in between the mountains as they thrashed outwards at one another, moving side by side.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow chanted, and vanished in an instant.

Metal Sonic grinded to a halt, and spun around in utter confusion, his foe nowhere to be seen.

"Above you fool!" Metal looked up at the wrong moment, just at the right angle to receive a kick to the face. Metal recollected himself and looked around again. Nothing.

A surge of bizarre readings from the area behind him made him wonder for a brief second, and then, Shadow appeared in the midst of it, a punch ready, and easily delivered.

"Humph! Too easy!" Shadow thought aloud as he vanished yet again.

Metal watched the reading in front of him, a bizarre mass of data was moving, rapidly and hectically through the space in front of him. Time slowed for the robot, and he watched carefully as the face of the hedgehog materialized in front of him.

His guard up this time, he stepped out of the way, and decked Shadow in the back as he passed. The world's ultimate lifeform lay on the ground in a heap, it was a hard punch.

"Grr…" Shadow growled as he got up, only to be kicked again, and sent flying.

"Chaos control!" He vanished once more, and the mass of data that Metal saw fled, far away.

Then, it came back, and at a blurring speed too. Shadow appeared at top speed racing past Metal Sonic, ready to fight once more.

* * *

Stephen watched the two targets on his world map with wonder and desire. He was never able to move that fast in all his life, all he could do was fly and stretch, which was a bit of a nice trade off in some ways, but he still wanted to run like the wind, not just float in it.

Then, without warning, something happened.

Shadow and Metal Sonic were rushing out of the mountains and into the fields of the north. But, something was gaining on them, and gaining fast. Seeing as Metal and Shadow were moving at supersonic speeds, for something to gain on them like that, it had to be faster than Mach 2, twice the speed of sound.

Stephen thought hard, and decided to tell Shadow, but, by the time he had made contact, the dots had all joined together.

* * *

Shadow and Metal thrashed at each other in the middle of the air, and something hit them hard, together. Or, rather, it didn't hit them, it flew over them, and got them caught in its turbulence.

_No GUN fighter is permitted to fly that low that fast…_ Shadow thought, standing up tiredly.

In the distance, about a mile away, a streak of black, silver, and a small hint of purple arched around, readying for another charge. Shadow looked to his side, and saw Metal standing up, looking at it too.

Shadow was in huge trouble, Metal was in huge trouble, or they were both in huge trouble.

The air around the thing boomed, a sonic boom, and then proceeded to get faster, and faster, and faster, and then Shadow's mind clicked back into gear. _Oh shit._

Both Shadow and Metal began to rocket away, in the opposite direction of the five time breaker of the speed of sound. In no time at all, however, Shadow looked to his right and heard a noise.

_CLANK!_

"Target Acquired…" It seethed, it was a robot. A very familiar robot.

Metal punched and kicked in any vain attempt to shake himself loose of the robot. The robot roared like some possessed, starving animal, and a corrosive, acid-like substance spewed from its mouth and onto the face of Metal Sonic, slowly eating its way into his manufactured skull.

"Terminated." The robot held its hand out over Metal's head and plunged it forwards, ripping into the central processing unit of the robot.

Metal's limbs twitched with a jerk, and then went limp.

The other robot yanked out all that it grabbed, and held the bizarre piece of Eggman's mechanical genius in its clawed hand, then squeezed it like putty, crumpling it like paper.

"Metal Sonic… Terminated… leaving for GUN headquarters for further-"

Shadow froze solid, the green eyes of the robot pierced what little soul he had left. Shadow suddenly pitied Metal Sonic; that he had to look at this creature as it killed him.

The eye's irises focused in on Shadow, analyzing every detail about him. The facial expression remained blank as the robot's arms remained half in locomotion with a bizarre inhuman step.

Shadow immediately blurted the first thing that came into his mind. "XT-421…"

Shadow was shocked, he hadn't seen him in forever. The robot could help them get rid of GUN! _He could save us all! He can destroy GUN singlehandedly! He can- wait… _Then XT's words reappeared in his mind. _"leaving for GUN headquarters…" He's on their side!_

That would be the doom of everyone!

Shadow's mind refocused on the present, and then watched as XT hunched over, much like an animal does before it pounces on its prey. Arms raised in a menacing stance, and a howl echoing off of his three rows of razor sharp teeth, each tooth gleaming in the noon sun, XT took a step back.

_Aw fuck._ And then the little black hedgehog bolted like a bat out of hell.

XT lunged into the air, arms unfurling out wide with wings underneath him, different than the wings mounted to his back like they were before. Rockets thrusting him into the air, XT's skull broke the sound barrier and it approached mach 2 effortlessly.

Shadow sprinted for his life, never before was he afraid, but he was certainly frightened now.

Shadow dared not look behind him, but he heard another click. Suddenly, a purple shot of raw energy pierced his arm.

"AAAAUGH!" Shadow fell to the ground and XT rocketed towards him.

Shadow rolled over to see the once friend XT charge right into him. In a moment, he rolled over again, and XT burrowed into the ground. Shadow looked at his arm, the useless waste of flesh hanging at his side now. Through his forearm, a clean, inch diameter hole was carve perfectly, straight through the tissue, bone, muscle and arteries, it horrified him. Soon, he was going to go into shock.

"Damn it!" Shadow cursed, pounding his fist into the ground. Bad move.

XT's head exploded from the ground right where he pounded, sending the injured hedgehog into the air, only to be caught by XT and thrown into the ground ruthlessly. Shadow heard something snap, and saw the arm that he held in front of him, the bad one, hanging at a bizarre angle with the bones near the hole completely broken in half, he could see them at their fractures.

XT stood over Shadow, looking into his eyes with crazed hunger. He picked the little black hedgehog up in his one hand, effortlessly and easily, into the air above his face.

"Prepare to be terminated." XT's voice was colder than ever, icy and emotionless. Shadow trembled with fear as XT's other hand went over his face, beginning to glow green.

_I can't die yet, no, not yet… the people… they'll all… need this…_

That being though, he knew he had to do something to stop XT, no matter what it took. He hatched a plan.

Raising his one good arm to the button on his headband, he tapped it, and it fell off, the message sent. Then, with a final move, he flicked his arms at his sides, and off came his bracelets, containing his power within them.

Whipping out his Chaos Emerald, floating next to him and his raw power, he grabbed XT's arm, and struggled free, a charge of energy shocking XT.

Shadow struck XT's chest, hard, with his one good arm, but nothing happened at all, not even a dent.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The evil, menacing cackle of the demonic robot bellowed from its stomach. "I am XT-421 of the Rinocian Police! My sole duty is to the General, and my job is to keep order and peace by all means necessary. You are a violation to the Peace of Rinoco, prepare to be terminated!" With a flick of his wrist, a long gun formed. Thick and long, it looked something like a machinegun sniper that launched 50 caliber bullets. Shadow knew better though, that was the gun that took his arm, it shot energy spikes, long, narrow, fast, and lethal, and it didn't help that it was a sniper.

"And I am Shadow the Hedgehog you fucking piece of scrap! GRAAAAARGH!" Shadow charged and uttered one word to the gem floating in space around where his head once was, trying to follow him.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

And the two vanished, leaving behind a dull, green gem on the ground in the middle of the fields north of Malavar, right next to a single power bracelet of the heroic hedgehog.

* * *

Stephen stared blankly at the screen after watching the clip.

"I've got to show this to everyone." He stood up in shock, and pressed a button on the dashboard shakily.

"Attention, attention, all members aboard this ship, report to the courtyard immediately for an emergency meeting, Knuckles, that includes you. Shadow the Hedgehog has just been killed."

* * *

**Haha, suckers. See you all in a week!**


	13. The Grand Plan

**Computer virus, my apologies.**

* * *

Voices muttered loudly as the people shuffled into the courtyard. Some had their heads hung low in sadness, some with disbelief, and many with shock. But a select few, such as Tails and Sonic, thought further. _What could've killed him?_

It was disturbing to think about.

Stephen stood at the top of a pedestal, watching his workforce pile in. His bottom lip was bit, and a grimace on his face. He looked pale. When the last groups came into view, he motioned for silence. Slowly, the crowd's voice dulled to vacuum-quiet.

"Well group, here we are. The news is as I said, Shadow the Hedgehog is dead." More bickering appeared, "Quiet!" He ordered, and continued through the silence, "But that's not why we're here right now. The fact that he's dead is a serious occasion, true, but, the method in which he exited this world is the disturbing part, the real reason we're here.

"You see, not too long ago, Shadow contacted me, wondering if Sonic was in the base. I told him he was, thus proving Shadow's hypothesis that a creature posing as Sonic was up and about. This creature was Metal Sonic."

"Metal!" Sonic roared, "I'll rip out his hard drive! Shadow was one of our best allies!"

"Agreed!" Many shouted.

"QUIET!" Stephen growled back, he was in no mood for this at all, but it had to be done.

"You are too late Sonic. Some…thing already beat you to it." He didn't need to silence them at this point, everyone awaited the news as if it were the birth of their own child, except, there was no joy in the information.

"I have with me a clip that Shadow made just in case something like this was to happen, please, watch and learn, you will see the face of the assailant soon."

Sonic cringed as he watched the battle between Metal Sonic and Shadow; there shouldn't have been any reason for Shadow to have lost.

Then it hit the two combatants, a giant, metal thing. It darted back to move in for the kill, and slaughtered Metal Sonic like a stuffed animal. It was an eerily familiar creature.

"That," Stephen paused and pointed to the creature, "if I'm not mistaken, is the famous XT-421, am I correct?"

Silently, headed nodded.

"Well, watch on."

In less than a minute of watching, everyone clung to their seats as Shadow was wounded severely, and the screen went blank.

"Furthermore, as I know this doesn't conclude that Shadow officially died to most of you, I detected a massive surge of raw energy in the section where those two were battling, Chaos energy too. From what I can tell, Shadow utilized his full power and used a super charged Chaos Control, away from the planet. How far he went, I don't know… but his emerald is still there, it is hardly noticeable it is so weak…"

The room was quiet, and everyone sat in their seats, shocked, horrified, and morbid. "What shall we do?" One asked.

"That, my good friend, is why we're here. What do we do? I don't know." It is possible that, since his incline in intelligence, that was his first admittance to not knowing the answer to something.

Cosmo rose up from her chair, "we should talk to him. XT is a good soul, he's probably just not thinking straight."

"Cosmo! Did you see what he did to Shadow?" Tails growled, "he isn't reasonable at all! He's completely lost it. I say we kill him!" Tails offered.

"Fat chance of that." A voice said from the back. Knuckles the Echidna was leaning on the archway leading to the core of the base, the station of the Master Emerald.

Age had been cruel to the Echidna, but he still could pack one helluva punch, despite his limited flying and climbing. He rarely saw the light of day anymore. He just stayed down in the caverns of the base guarding his Emerald, preparing for anything.

"How do you kill something that can beat Chaos Control?" The Echidna questioned, wiser than before.

"Ooh… dang…" Tails rubbed the back of his head.

"Again, we must try to reason with him, there is no way to destroy him…" Cosmo urged, "if he could be turned, think of what a powerful ally he'd be against GUN! We'd have this war won in no time at all!"

"But that's just it, he won't reason. The old XT never hurt anything, and here we just saw him cripple Shadow the Hedgehog without a second thought, and he didn't just cripple him, he brutally tried to mutilate him!" Tails cried back.

"Perhaps…" Sonic started, "Perhaps there is a way…"

All quieted to hear the hedgehog's idea.

"Now I know I'm not much of the thinking type, I think with my feet, and it gets me far. But, these seem to be the facts. For starters, XT, regardless if he's bad or good, attacked Shadow, one of his semi-friends. Another point, He did say something about serving GUN, which makes him a threat no matter what. And we also know one other thing about him. Chaos Energy _can_ hurt him. Enough of it, in a powerful enough being, can melt him down. Thorn the Seedrian, from a while back, with a super powered Chaos Emerald from the future showed us this. Now, mulling this all in my head… perhaps we could reason with him."

"How?"

"If I became Super Sonic, and put up enough of a fight, perhaps he'd see me as enough of a threat to cause him to rethink his being with GUN."

"Sonic! No! You'll get hurt honey! You've not changed into Super Sonic in years, and you're not as fit as you were! It may destroy you!" Amy cried out.

"Amy…" Sonic started again, he was being drained from the thought power needed to keep this going. "Listen. If someone doesn't act, there is a good chance XT will destroy us. I've got to try, I'm the only one left that has a super form known to be powerful enough to battle things like this. For our kid, for this planet, I've got to step up to the plate again."

A few claps were heard as Sonic finished up.

"Hold on!" Stephen quieted once more. "We need to vote on this. I personally don't like this idea, but we haven't got any better plan… I must agree, who else here is willing to go for it?"

Slowly, hands were raised, Cosmo's being the last, she held great disdain for violence.

"Then it is settled. We shall have Super Sonic confront XT and persuade him to join our fight for survival against GUN!"

"HURRAH!" Many shouted out.

"However," Stephen's voice, yet again, beckoned for peace, "this leaves a big struggle for all of us then… we presently have three Emeralds with us in this base right now. Shadow had one, which is presently a foot under the ground where he was last spotted before his exodus with XT, and from our reports, GUN has amassed three, and they keep them all locked up in a heavily fortified vault in the basement of one of their largest bastions."

Sonic smiled, his feet finally began thinking for him. "Sounds like a party!"

"Indeed. Now, Tails and I have been devising a plan to rob this place for a long time, but we finally have need of doing so. The general plan is to send a large team covertly into their Fort Omen, and override it with a surprise attack. Details will come in time, but, for now, that's about it…" Stephen announced with pride.

"What about Shadow's Emerald?" Brian piped up, curious for plans with that one.

"Well, we'll need a small group, less than three for sure, to rush off and quickly retrieve it. It would probably be best to do so at the same time of the assault, so GUN won't know what hit them… the only problem with it is… well… that team wouldn't be able to be lifted aboard our castle, and would have to survive on the land for a long time…"

"Wait, why?" Luna asked.

"It goes something like this, Luna; we are a big ship, right? And if GUN spots us, they'll decimate us with their mass armies and air force, so we must be covert. This base never ever ever ever ever flies over the northern plains. It is always clear skies, nearly 100 percent of the time, and besides that, the land is so high up there that our base is within seeing range from the ground even on a cloudy day. Thus, we'd have to drop them off as close as we could, which, at best, the Malvrin Desert, which alone is treacherous…"

"Oh…" Luna sighed.

"I'll go." Brian stoop up, willing and eager.

"Brian, I know you're a bit shaken up from Cal's death, but, he's not here to save you when it gets rough… Besides, we could send Sonic or Sarah to get it…" Stephen began.

"Stephen, stop. I am more than capable of leading a small team, of two or three for a good week in the wilderness, let alone human territory. Save Sonic and Sarah for your infiltration plan. That aside, I've got a little plan that'd keep us all under the radar."

"Do explain." Stephen rubbed his chin, the evening sun synthetically filtered in from above.

"Well, a good distance away from the Northern Plains is the lowland marshes of Myrington. I am very familiar with plants, and can navigate those marshes on foot easily, keeping an extremely low profile while refraining from using the Extreme gear. Humans hate the place, they find it uninhabitable and harsh, but I know how to survive off of that kind of nature. I could easily make it in a fortnight."

"You realize that when you leave this base you won't be helped at all, right? Who's going with you?"

"I will sir!" Luna called, "and personally, I think anyone more to the group may be a hassle."

Brian's eyebrows went up, so did Stephen's, in the strange boldness she possessed.

"Well then! I guess that settles it!" Stephen chuckled, "you two lovebirds have fun on your life-threatening, perilous journey! Ha!"

"Now wait a damn minute," Tails frowned, "what makes you think I'm ok with this, sending my boy off on a trip with an… attractive young wolf when we'll have no contact with them whatsoever? That so wrong!"

"Dad! Sheesh!" Brian rolled his eyes, "I'm old enough to hold my own, and you never had a problem with me going on long missions with Cal!"

"But she's a girl!" Tails pointed out.

"And a really pretty one too!" Cosmo added.

"And I saw them making out on Brian's bed earlier today," Stephen cackled quietly.

"WHAT?!" Both parents yelped.

"Oh shove off, he's sixteen and he's the third smartest person here." Stephen shooed at Cosmo and Tails, finally agreeing on something for a change, "besides! Those two make a great team!"

Cosmo and Tails ceased their argument; their boy was old enough for anything.

"So, Brian and Luna, you two are willing to go together to fetch Shadow's Emerald for us?" Stephen asked with finality.

"Yes." They both answered.

"Ok, you two must collaborate with one another to decide what you'll need on this trip. Talk to me later so we can make arrangements. Everyone else, follow me."

Stephen shook his legs out and began walking towards the archway that Knuckles was standing by, leading to the workshop that he and Tails had been working in for so long. The mass of people ventured into the workshop that Stephen had led them all to, and gasped with wonder. No one had ever seen a GUN truck so close before, only Sonic and the people that worked on the truck had.

"This is our infiltration device. Tails and I have hid onto it weaponry, jets, and slots for small personal craft to jettison yourself from in case of an emergency. We don't need everyone for it, but a large amount of you could easily pilot the small craft within once the Rose's go in and steal the Emeralds-"

"Whoa, what?!" a few people shouted in shock, Stephen was getting ahead of himself again.

"Oh darn… sorry… ok, here's my more detailed plot. We'll all drive this truck to that base, and then, once we get past all of the perimeters, all hell will break loose. We'll send out a lot of small craft to distract them, piloted by all whom are brave enough to do so, and then, amidst the chaos, Sonic, Sarah, and maybe Amy, will rush into the base, the three being the three quickest creatures on the planet as far as we know right now, and steal the three Chaos Emeralds buried within the base. The three will come out of the base, and zoom back into the truck, and you'll all return as the truck exits as ultra sonic speeds. When we finally outrun them, Tails and I will jam the radar, and pilot out way back to base, with three of the 4 remaining Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic looked at his daughter, smiling at the challenge, just like he would've at his prime. Then he glanced at his wife, who wasn't as thrilled about splitting up inside that base. It had been a long time since she'd seem real action and probably was unsure of her ability to run and make it on her own.

"Stephen, I'll take two Emeralds out of there. I don't think Amy could do it."

Amy glared at Sonic, "how dare you say that!" She raised an arm about to hit him.

"Amy, that look in your eyes, you're too proud to say it, but you know you aren't as fit as you used to be, and it would be nearly catastrophic if you couldn't run as fast as you could in your best condition."

She lowered her head, defeated.

"Besides," Sonic spoke a bit louder for all to hear him, "I can use Chaos Control, I can get out faster than my daughter can, I could make it about as fast as catching a single Emerald from them!" Sonic cheered, hoping to boost morale.

"Amy, are you ok with this decision?" Stephen asked sincerely.

"Yes." She replied after a moment's deliberation.

"Then we practically have this mapped out. Everyone willing to die for our freedom and be a pilot to distract GUN, I'll have a sign-up sheet on the courtyard pedestal for you all. Remember guys, if we pull this off, then we have a shot at getting our old lives back. Now go, sleep on your decisions, but beware, we must execute this plan hastily. Shadow could've only warped XT about a week away with that Chaos Control of his. I'd give us a safe net of five days to make this operation work. Meeting dismissed." Stephen declared, and everyone filed out of the workshop, all except Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, Stephen, and Sarah.

"Stephen…" Knuckles began, "this is horribly dangerous."

"How so?" Stephen asked, hopping into the driver's seat of the semi truck.

"Well, for starters, you're bringing with you the other three Chaos Emeralds, what if you fail?"

"My priority is to keep the Chaos Emeralds away from them, and besides, little GUN has can take down their own semi truck, modified by Tails and I."

"And furthermore, how will you get in if you're the driver?"

Stephen pushed harder off the ground and whipped out his arms, elongated his limbs slightly. Then, he took his face and pulled in his spikes. After reshaping his face entirely, he closes his eyes and focused hard on something.

Slowly but surely, the color of his skin started to change, similar to a work outfit worn by humans.

With a nonchalant voice, vastly different from his old one, he answered Knuckles question, "As you were saying?" A smile crept upon his eerily human face.

"Ok, that's just creepy. And where will Tails go?"

"I can hide under the seat, there's plenty of room, and a small bag could cover my backside." Tails explained.

"Knuckles, stop worrying, I've got this all under control." Stephen coolly declared, changing back into a hedgehog shape.

"That's what I worried about…" the echidna muttered inaudibly.

A bulk of the group left, leaving only Stephen, Sarah, and Sonic.

"Hey Stephen…" Sonic scratched his head, wondering how to ask something.

"Yeah Mr. Rose?"

"Sonic, please, um… this is going to sound really weird, but can we send a message to Eggman?"

"Wait, what?"

"Long ago, before Sarah was even conceived, even the very thought of her," he chuckled," Dr. Eggman used to send an annoying little messenger to tell us exactly what he was doing. I want revenge, payback for all of those exploding bombs."

"So wait, you want me to tell him everything?"

"No… um… make it vague. 'we are planning to attack you, be ready,' or something like that."

"Reverse psychology? I didn't think Eggman was that smart…"

"Well, he kind of bombed it, and told you most of his plans…"

"Ok… I may have just the robot for this too…" Stephen loved building pets, and this one was one of his favorite automatons.

He took the blue hedgehogs to a tall chamber on the side of the workshop. In it, a small variety of robots were stacked in pods one over the other, ready for deployment.

"I have these guys ready in case of an invasion, you know?" Stephen smiled. "This guy may be just what we're looking for. He's fast, cool looking, flies, and can easily be modified."

"Ok…"

"His name is Viper. I designed him for a quick bombardment of an enemy base or ship. If we were to put a message in a shell, or a TV of sorts in a shell, we could send it to him rather quickly, but he wouldn't come back…"

"Are you ok with losing him?"

"I can always make another." Stephen chuckled, typing a password into a small pad on the side of the door.

With sheer smoothness, the blue, glass door slip open, revealing an angular metal beast, about 3 feet tall, with wheels as legs, and no arms. The robot's eyes gleamed a dim yellow as it took a step forwards, the small wheels locking its feet in place as it walked.

"Caw!" It yelped. It was a big bird.

"You see, the fuselage houses a small bomb, or in this case, messaging device, and is deposited via the rear, as if it were an egg. There are wings on the back with miniature rocket powered thrusters, and the wheels double as jets in flight."

"How do you do it?" Sonic's face remained dumbfounded.

"It's really quite easy Mr. Rose, all you have to do is-"

"Don't go there with me, I don't speak geek, sorry." Sonic started walking away.

Stephen merrily started working on Viper while it lay on a table, deactivated. Sarah watched in awe at her boyfriend work, loving everything he did, however bizarre.

* * *

Brian sat in his room with Luna, deciding the details of their trip. Luna only had one pair, so she would either have to get another one, or stay in the same clothes the whole trip. Another little problem that kept coming up was how they were going to sleep.

"Well, we could just sleep in our own sleeping bags and tents…" Luna offered.

Brian grimaced, and explained, "well, any extra material that we bring will drain our energy."

Luna rolled her eyes, "so you just want to sleep with me?"

"I didn't say that…" Brian looked away sheepishly.

"We can bring one tent, and two sleeping bags." Luna smiled, adding it to their list of items.

Brian fiddled with his thumbs as he sat next to Luna, who was babbling on about what they needed. His mind was elsewhere. In an impulse, he gently took Luna's chin in his hand, and tilted her towards him, and kissed her suddenly. Luna didn't complain.

"You taste weird." She commented after a moment, "but I guess that can be expected, as you kind of are weird…"

Brian's ears drooped. "Sorry."

"Don't be. It's a sweet, syrupy kind of taste. I like it." She moved in on him, tasting him yet again.

"I still haven't really accept the thought of you actually being my girlfriend…" Brian chuckled.

"I'm not, really. I don't see myself as your girlfriend, I just really like you, and need a person who'll care for me right now. I am a bit hurt still… you know, from Cal…"

"Oh…" Brian's ears fell down, losing their vigor.

"I'm sorry Brian… I'm just a bit… different I guess. It will take some time for me to fully warm up to you emotionally… I mean, you're a great guy, and I'm sure one day I'll really like you, but, it'll take some time. Until then, let's just be friends."

"Friends…" Brian echoed.

"Special friends." She added and kissed him again, smiling.

Brian smiled, his mood lightening, and got up to work on packing a few items to be specially carried on his belt.

* * *

Sylvia and Lucien watched patiently, both the inside and outside of the base, for something to happen.

"It seems unusually quiet around here…" Sylvia commented to her brother in cyberspace.

"My dearest sister, it is merely the breath before the plunge. The end is drawing nearer for these poor denizens of our fortress…"

"You speak like you're a preppy butler! I swear!"

"And you speak like you're a promiscuous female in her adolescent years."

Sylvia folded her non-existent arms, and huffed.

"We must be very careful… things are about to get very chaotic around here…" Lucien communicated very slowly and lightly.

"Do you think they're going to die?"

"Some already have, you saw that poor bull from Master Stephen's pod's video records… I fear more share that fate."

"Will Sarah die too? I like that girl…"

"Mistress Sarah will be fine. Master Stephen won't let anything happen to that girl, he loves her far too much."

"True…" Sylvia thought a bit further, "if this base gets attacked, do you think we'll die?"

"…" Lucien had to focus heavily, "I don't know… let us both wish dearly that GUN's air force doesn't discover us, or this XT-421 figure. They might be the doom of us all…"

The silence came from both ends this time.


	14. Shoving Off

Stephen had finished his creation by now, and was headed off to his little secret project. He knew that it wouldn't cause him anything but the pain of irony, but, he went through with it anyways.

His project only needed the message to send, and he'd work on that later with his girlfriend's father. In the mean time, he settled down in his leather throne. Letting his skin ooze into the grooves of the seat, he started his machine and went through his routine.

* * *

Sarah lay on her stomach on her bed. Her feet dangled upwards in the air and her metal arm propped her up as she tuned a radio with her other arm.

"Ah! Got it!" She announced gleefully as she successfully made it to her desired station.

"Great evening to you all boys and girls! A fine night for rocking the roof off its hinges, is it not? 10:45, as always my faithful. Ready to roll, StDJ is in the house! Welcome to the lightly show, where all the crazy things go! So get on your feet, move to the beat, and swivel your asses low, but please oh God do not move slow! Once more, I own all original copies of the tracks you listen to, but I know you won't listen to that, part of my spiel. Without further adieu, let's do the new!"

Sarah loved this DJ almost more than her boyfriend. The way he brought joy to her world when it was always down gave her something to shoot for. One day, so she swore, when humans and animals could walk on the same street, should would find this man and thank him profusely for his wondrous music that lifted her low spirits.

"_Why do people live in sorrow? Why do they have to live in fear?_"

"Yeah…" Sarah agreed, "why?"

"_for all the children of tomorrow, we'll be strong the way is clear..._"

"Hmm…" Sarah sighed, listening in, phone in hand.

"Now, who will be my lucky caller? The number is 784-74-36, toll free as can be!"

Sarah had it speed dialed faster than her feet could move.

Her phone rung, and she got an answer on the other line.

_NO WAY!_

"Hello! StDJ speaking, who might be on the other line?"

"No way! I did it?"

"…" There was a pause on the phone and radio, "NowayIdidit! Nice name, mine's StDJ, nice to meet you. So, where might you be calling from this fair evening?"

"Uh…" Sarah recalled the city she used to live in before she moved to the mystic ruins area, "Dry Springs, Malavar."

"Hmm… I once knew a good critter from the neck of the world… it brings up a bit of nostalgia… now, I'd like to ask you, what kind of tune are you asking for?"

"One that sweeps me from my feet, and makes me feel happy." She answered into the phone honestly.

"Ah, I've just the ticket. A two part treat, stay on the phone, and get on your feet."

A new song began playing on the radio. "This one's called Caramelldansen, hope y'all enjoy!"

"Now, nowayIdidit, we're on a private line, do you wish for me to have your real name?" The voice suddenly sounded a bit more sincere.

"Sarah," _should I tell him my last name? It may give me away… oh, there are a lot of Sarah Rose's out there… right?_

"Sarah what?"

"Sarah White." _Shoot… ah well, better safe than sorry…_

"Ok Sarah, I want you to walk to the door of your room, and open it."

_What the fuck?_

"You there yet?"

"Yeah…" Sarah replied, befuddled.

"Ok, now take 103 babysteps directly away from your room, I know you can."

_WHAT. THE. FUCK!?_

"Who are you?" Sarah demanded.

"I'm StDJ baby! I know all, I see all, I love all."

"Ok, I'm there."

"On the keypad to your left, enter the letters R-O-S-E, and step into the room."

_Ok, this isn't funny, who the hell is this guy? Is it a spy from GUN? Should I keep talking to him?_

"Now, in the center of the room, on the left vertical track, there is a panel, place your hand on it."

_He knows this base far too well, this is getting creepy._

The moment Sarah placed her hand over the panel, a green light appeared in the middle of room, spewing energy.

"Now hang up the phone and step into the center."

Sarah placed the phone on the ground, and knelt down. Making a cross over her chest, and making a silent prayer for good fortune, she stepped into the light, and floated upwards.

As she reached the top, a small slot opened and quickly closed. Sarah found herself on the smooth ground of the top floor.

She looked up, and there sitting in front of her was Stephen.

"Stephen?" Sarah looked at him with utter confusion in her stupor.

"That's StDJ to you hon." Stephen coolly announced without the microphone to Sarah in StDJ's voice.

"Wait… WAIT… YOU ARE STDJ?!"

"Yep. It is my pet project. Come here, sit on my lap, you need to be lifted off your feet." Stephen offered in his normal tone, patting his lap, beckoning Sarah to him.

"It was you the whole time? I fell in love with you again?" She muttered as she sat on his mushy lap, sinking into the chair.

"You were in love with my alter ego too? Jeez, you're just head over heels for me." Stephen's arms wrapped around her body in a snakelike fashion, gently caressing her sides and torso as his fingers split away from each other.

"I can feel your entire body at once with my two hands… you're scared, aren't you?"

"Yes…" Sarah's eyes were closed as she said it, fighting back tears.

"Don't be. It'll be fine." Stephen breathed, music playing in the background.

"But what if it fails? What if someone catches me in there? What about my dad? What about you? What if they have an ambush waiting? What if they're prepared? What if XT-"

"What if it all goes according to plan?" Stephen countered. "Tell me, lovely, what then?"

"The war will end…" Sarah's voice was near silent as she said it.

"The war will end. And yeah, I don't mean to get you all excited, but I did promise you I'd _think_ about giving in to your constant pressuring on the issue of sex."

Sarah bit her bottom lip, the subject was successfully altered.

"You'd… talk to my mom and dad about that?"

"I know they'll say yes, but I figure, well, if there was a chance of you getting pregnant, I'd rather it be in a time of peace where we can fix any bugs in it…"

"Bugs? And how am I going to get pregnant? It's just on-"

"Once? Oh dear, Sarah… do you think I'd settle for once? You're beautiful, and deserve to be shown how much I love you more than once. How about once a week?"

Sarah's eyes lit up, this fantasy of the future was very nice.

"And about the bugs… well… I'm not positive I can mate like a regular creature, and I'd like to make sure that, if you were carrying our child, that you were not only fit for it, but also that it runs smoothly and normally. I mean, I have chaos genes within me, and you only partially do, some serious problems could occur if those two were to meet."

"I see now… our kid could be a freak of nature."

"Sorry folks!" Stephen bellowed in a human voice, "StDJ here, ready to keep you rockin' throughout the night! Now, a 5 hour playlist direct from my station, unbroken, pure rave music, only for my faithful." Stephen pressed a few buttons on the display before him, and hovered upwards, limbs appearing beneath him so the chair Sarah was sitting on remained intact.

"Sarah, what would it be like? After the war?"

"Peace… calm… a good environment to live with you, maybe raise a family, get married… love… hope… no fear…"

"And you see why it is going to work? It has to, for that dream, shared by all animals, _must_ come true."

"Stephen, God doesn't love us animals. If He did, he would've had us killed already."

"Sarah!" Stephen raised his voice, using the lift in the middle to retreat to his bed, "I know you know I'm not that faithful as you and your mother are, but sometimes, God won't do everything for you! You have to take every chance to get what you dream of, and this is that chance, and we're all going to take it. If we succeed, we're one guaranteed step closer to beating GUN and restoring a sense of peace and serenity in the world. God probably wants that, so he'll be on our side, I promise you." He laid her down on his bed, covering her gently with his own body as a blanket.

Sarah was in tears by now, "I guess He does love me… he gave me, no, us, you."

Sarah refused to say anything more the entire night; she was already asleep.

"God gave them me, huh?" Stephen thought with wonder, he'd never considered the possibility. He had started to factor in a luck or God factor into just about all of his equations, which almost always tilted the scales to his favor, but he never thought that his own arrival into civilization, let alone the world, was luck. "Some fucking holy man am I!" He laughed, scorning his train of thought. _I'll leave God and religion for after the war._

He closed his eyes then, and decided to work on his sleep debt.

* * *

"Well, first things first on this momentous day!" Stephen declared at the brink of sunrise to Sonic and Sarah, "We must send this message! Ha ha! Go Viper, give 'em hell!" Stephen gave the bird a slight kick in the butt and watched it swoop into a fault in the GUN radar. In an hour or so, Omen and Damian would be getting a wakeup call.

"Now what?" Sarah smiled, waiting for her boyfriend's reply.

"We check to see how many people are signed up on that sheet, if there are enough, we'll shove off tomorrow." Sonic ran off to the gym as Sarah carried Stephen to the courtyard at a quick walk at 40 miles per hour.

"How do you do it?" Stephen sighed as he peeled himself off her back.

Stephen walked over, regaining his balance with every step, to the pedestal where he left the signup sheet, readying himself for just about anything.

Stephen, needless to say, was amazed. All 45 spots were filled, and all ten backups were taken as well. With this, they could start making preparations.

"Sarah, any chance you could take me to-"

"You're command station? Love to!" She grabbed Stephen, it didn't matter where really, with her mechanical arm and rushed off to the center of the base, where Stephen's room was.

"I don't remember giving you any mind reading equipment."

"We've been dating how long now? I can read you like the back of my hand." Sarah chuckled.

Stephen smiled back as he situated himself in his command chair.

"Attention everyone, we have all 45 spots on the roster filled, we shall depart tomorrow at 5 in the morning, so get your sleep, and," Stephen's tone dimmed to a gloomy one, "say your goodbyes, for this may cost you your life. I repeat, tomorrow at 5 AM. Be ready and prepared in the courtyard."

Sarah shivered as Stephen said this, and instantly, her mind recoiled to the unstable state of fear. "I don't want to say goodbye… not yet."

"Don't worry, you of all people will be the least likely to get hurt. Our entire battle is to make sure you won't have any resistance while you make a theft." Stephen confidently spoke.

"Still…" Sarah whispered, taking off her necklace. "Stephen, take this, please. Just in case…"

"Sarah, this is that necklace that washed up in the dunes, wasn't it?" Sarah nodded. "I'm not going to take this. If you die, which you won't, it would deserve to be around your neck."

"No, I'm not taking it back, I want you to own something of mine, and that is it, my most prized possession other than my arm and speed. Please, take that, I trust you with it."

Stephen knew that, like Amy, when Sarah decided something, she wasn't going to take no for an answer. With a hopeless smile on his face, he held the necklace up to his neck, and it disappeared.

"What happened to it?" Sarah's eyes widened.

"You didn't know that I can suction things within me? Oh dear… how long have we been dating now?" Stephen cackled.

"Not funny!" Sarah hit him playfully, "what else do you hide in there?"

"Well, presently, I have your necklace, an all-purpose tool, and a small gun, and ten of them to be exact."

"Ten?"

"They're really small." Stephen's body elongated, and he pulled open his chest like a jacket.

Locked into small pouches within his skin, ten, pen-like tubes appeared, each with fine silver trimming and black casings. In fact, they seemed to be ordinary ball-point pens.

"Is that a pen?" Sarah asked, pointing.

"No, it is a high energy projection tube. I like to call them my writing sticks." Stephen smiled wide.

"Why?"

"I can't really show you…" Stephen scratched his head. "It is too dangerous in this base… not without proper safety equipment…"

"Ah well… Still, that ability, well, have you ever tried putting bigger things in there?"

Stephen's eyebrows rose as he closed himself. "Bigger how?" He tempted, knowing where Sarah was going with this.

"Like people?"

"No… maybe one day I'll have to try, that," Stephen wrapped his arms around her, kissing her, "on somebody."

By this point, Sarah was feeling a bit faint, and needed to relax somewhere before she had a meltdown. Stephen was driving her insane in _interesting_ ways. _She's completely forgotten again. Good. I did my job well._ Stephen smiled evilly at Sarah as she staggered away to her room, flustered.

"Now on to my next task…" Stephen cracked his knuckles, and strode off to meet Brian and Luna before they left on their journey.

* * *

"Hahaha!" The blue hedgehog cackled on the screen, a vein sticking out of a fat scientist's neck, "Guess what Egghead? We're going to attack you! Right in front of your nose, we'll stomp all of your robots to bits! Think you can stop us? I don't." Sonic laughed again.

"Damn this cursed hedgehog! He's the reason my name is tarnished!"

"Oh yeah, and about this message, well, let's just say it is payback for all those stupid times your daddy, or whatever you want to call him, pranked us with Bokkun."

"That's not nice of him for making fun of me!" The little machine-like creature whined as the TV in the pod began to glow.

"See ya, suckers! WooHOO!" A giant blast of heat and soot smacked Damian and his inherited servant.

"I WILL KILL YOU SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!!"

"Do-do you want me to send word to Omen about this attack?" The little creature shook the black from his body.

"Yes." Damian growled; burnt sections of his frizzy moustache falling to the ground as his lips curled into a near snarl.

Bokkun flew out of the room faster than Sonic could run, or pretty darn close.

* * *

"So you guys are ready then?" Stephen asked a final time, looking at his two secret agents, geared and ready for combat.

Brian had little on. The area they'd be in most would be first hot and muggy, and then extremely breezy. A backpack strapped tightly to him contained food and supplies to roughly last them a week, and not very comfortably, and any tools to be used in nature, such as simple tinderboxes and an all purpose knife. He had his beads with him, most of his supply at that, and a small flask of nourishing water at his side, to be used sparingly.

Luna had more on, but a bit less on utility. She carried the tent with her, not very heavy, but still bulky on her small frame. She had a battle skirt on, a little thick for muggy weather, but it would protect her if anything were to happen. She also carried a few extra jugs for water and a bit of food for herself. She too, carried a knife, and both she and Brian had their Extreme Gears latched onto their backpacks along with their sleeping bags.

No extra devices were to be carried, and anything electronic was to be shut off, if GUN were to find them, they were toast.

"Godspeed to you guys. I have the Emerald's location on the map. GUN won't find out about it until XT returns, and he ought to be back in a week or so, right around when you guys should be heading back. So, hurry, and by the time you get back, that location will be marked on your map as well. Good luck to both of you, and, well…"

Amy said what the unfaithful shape shifter couldn't, "May God be with you."

"We've got Morther Nature on our side, I'm not afraid." Brian smiled at the group amassing to wave their goodbyes to the near suicidal mission-goers.

Tails and Cosmo, both among this mass, whispered aloud to the two as Brian and Luna grabbed their boards and waited for the signal.

"Be careful, Brian…"

Then the two were off, ready to capture what would be the seventh Chaos Emerald for the anthropomorphic creatures of Mobius.

* * *

Tails sat in his bed alone, thinking heavily. Sonic and company had been on adventures where they got into more trouble than this situation, and the fox was sure they'd make it through, but that wasn't what worried him. He had been a shitty husband for the past few years, and he felt a bit of regret.

Sure, Cosmo was being stubborn and foolish by- _wait, why were we even fighting again? Damn it… I've completely forgotten…_ It didn't matter what it was, all this time, it was just his selfish thoughts that he was right, and she was wrong, and she should admit it. But it wasn't like he could just go and apologize, she wouldn't accept it. She probably hated him by now. After the way he yelled at her and verbally abused her, she had to have.

It was miserable for him, having his wife, whom he was at one point overly fond of and would've done anything for, dislike him to the point of not wanting sex for years. The last time they'd done anything was before Daisy Left.

_Daisy… I wonder if she survived the attacks… I'll search for her one day, after the war… I want our daughter, well, I'd like to know if she's still alive at least..._

After the war, after the war. That was a long ways away. Tails was sure that he'd live to the end of it, and when he did, he'd make amends to his family. He'd been a decent father, teaching Brian all of the technological know-how he knew, despite Brian's clumsy tendency to mess up at least one thing in a project of machinery. But that couldn't compensate in the slightest for his poor husband skills.

_After this battle, I'll do something in secret. I won't let her know, not yet, but I can still make her feel a bit better in secret. She won't accept some gift in person, so I'll leave it by her in secrecy._

Tails still felt horrible about hiding a nice act from his own wife, but, a time would come when he could open up to her again, and now wasn't the time at all.

Tails drifted to sleep soon thereafter, readying himself for the big day tomorrow.

* * *

_4:55 AM._

"Hey, Sarah." Stephen nudged the girl on his left a bit, provoking a snore.

"Sleeping beauty, c'mon!" He whispered loudly, "time to get up, big day ahead of us!"

Sarah's eyes opened, and she sat up, stretching.

"Shit, it is way too early."

"You can sleep in the car, silly; I'll alert you when it is time to get moving." Stephen handed the sleepy girl her arm, and she groggily reattached it.

"Ughhhhhh!" She moaned, lugging herself up out of bed.

"C'mon no, we've got a mission to run." Stephen grinned as he took her away to the garage.

A multitude of the people was already in the courtyard, ready to be ordered around. Sonic, Tails, and Sarah were given special privileges, and were escorted onto the truck earlier in the morning, ready to discuss plans of attack and points of entry.

Stephen stood taller than everyone else with his metamorphic ability and commanded his group into the garage, where the truck was being moved to an air gate.

"C'mon everyone! Into the truck, move it move it! Sit in a pod, and strap yourselves in quickly, we are approaching a breach in the radar fairly soon, and there won't be one for a long time, we must hurry."

The last animal made it into the truck, and Stephen glided, into the cab of the truck, and closed the hatch on the back.

"Don't GUN trucks have anti-radar material on them?" Sonic asked quickly, he was very tired.

"Sonic, true as that may be, our engines that keep this mighty vessel afloat do not have stealth material, so, we need the breach until we land."

"Master Stephen," a voice spoke on the speakers of the hangar. "It is almost time, shall I open the main air gate?"

"Yes sir, and until we return, you're in command with your sister, if I don't return, keep everyone safe." Stephen ordered, as Tails activated the thrusters on the sides of the huge truck.

"By your command." Lucien digitally bowed and opened the gates, sucking the Truck and its contents out of the base with rapid speeds.

At terminal velocity, the 20 ton truck plummeted out of the sky, a limply falling with no control.

Stephen scratched his head in the cab.

"Shit. Tails, do you remember where we put the controls for the thrusters?"

Tails looked at Stephen with a perplexed state of panic, shaking his head 'no'.


	15. Invasion

**No need in apologizing, I've been distracted by a lot of things. I hope school frees my mind up a bit and helps me focus on this... (I do a lot of my plotting for this story at school, I mean, what else would I do? Work? Bah! This _IS_ work!)**

* * *

"Ok, I remember installing it, so it has got to be here." Stephen sighed, rubbing his rubbery chin as he, his co-captain, and their crew plummeted in a massive juggernaut of a truck, with added jet engines.

"STEPHEN YOU MORON! WE'VE GOT TO ACT FAST!"

"Shush, shush, I know that, but we shouldn't yell… we've got to focus before-"

"Before we crash and burn with this 20 ton piece of shit!"

"Calm down, and give me an estimate of the time before impact…" Stephen started fumbling around the cockpit, roughly twice the size of an average truck's, four times the size of an anthropomorphic creature's truck.

Levers, buttons, gauges of all sorts cluttered the cabin, but nothing looked like it was built to _fly_ the truck.

"Maybe this one?" Stephen pressed a button, only to watch the windshield wipers move back and forth on the glass before them. Tails gruesomely imagined where that glass would be in a minute, give or take a few seconds.

Tails glanced left and right, looking for the controls, but found nothing. Looking at Stephen's side of the cabin, he noticed the grey genius looking at the glass still, his eyes moving back and forth with the wipers.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"

"Sorry! They're cool! I've never used those before!"

"FUCK THAT LOOK FOR THE GOD DAMN CONTROLS!"

* * *

"Does it seem like we're just falling?" A random crewmate asked Sonic.

"Yeah… it kind of does… I wish Stephen and Tails would tell us how this would work, this is mildly uncomfortable… you'd think they'd fly a bit smoother, or at least fall a bit smoother."

"Do you think they have it under control?"

"It's Stephen, and Tails, since when do they not have it under control?"

* * *

By this point, the cabin was ablaze with flashing lights and blinking panels. Tails' hair was pulled sideways, matching his ears, and he was about to have a heart attack.

"Would you calm down already?" Stephen asked, so laid back that it was presumable he was stoned.

"NO I WON'T CALM DOWN! WE'RE ABOUT TO CRASH, BURN, AND DIE! ALL BECAUSE YOU FORGOT WHERE YOU WIRED THE CONTROLS!"

"You didn't want to because you figured I would drive the truck." Stephen pointed out in his cool tone.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH!" Tails went ballistic and began banging his head into the passenger air bag holder.

_THUD_

_THUD_

Stephen glanced out the window and saw the ground. Nervously, he bit his lip and kept searching at a slow pace.

_THUD_

_THUD_

Suddenly, something clicked. Stephen heard it and looked underneath the steering wheel, and saw a glowing crimson button, previously concealed by a steel panel.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, tapping the button with joy.

Tails looked at Stephen, and jumped as he heard the six engines creak out of their slots.

The divider of their seats began to unfold automatically, towards the dashboard. Wires jumped out and dove into slots in the mess of technology between the two geniuses, and Tails watched in amazement as Stephen sat on the newly made seat, in the middle of the cabin, just as a series of airplane devices appeared for controlling.

"I told you not to worry!" Stephen gleefully exclaimed as he mounted the seat and pulled the stick hard, leveling out of the truck in a mere moment.

Stephen grasped another lever, and pushed it as far away from his as he could. The vessel itself responded with a lurch and a sudden burst of sound from the engines, and with it, the ground, now less than 50 feet beneath them slowed exponentially.

"I wouldn't let a foolish mistake hurt her…" The whiz kid muttered as he gently pulled the same lever back carefully with one hand, the other keeping the yoke balanced.

In the next moment, he pulled the level all the way back, and the vehicle dropped to the ground with a small thud, it was only 2 feet above the ground. Stephen hopped off the seat, and flipped a series of toggles back and forth in a particular order, and the controls flipped back into a divider. He crawled back into his seat, morphed into his humanoid form, and buckled his seat belt.

Tails was staring blankly into the window shield, hardly breathing. Either he had just had a heart attack, or he was containing something.

"Tails?"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME INSTALL THIS STUFF?! WE WOULDN'T HAVE COME CLOSE TO DYING!"

"Relax, I had that all planned out." Stephen reignited the truck's ordinary engine, and the vehicle roared to life.

"What?!" In stupor, Tails glared.

"Well, it is easy to guess that you have a short temper when things go horribly wrong, that is how you've ended up after this war. So, if I were to misplace something crucial to our survival, you'd have a reaction similar to what you demonstrated for me not but a minute ago." Stephen nonchalantly spoke as he sped the truck up. "From there, I figured, you'd eventually start banging your head into that bar there, everyone does it when they're very upset I've found, and so, I placed the button which activates the controls for the thrusters under a metal sheet designed to come off when your head began hitting the bar with the exact force that you did right there."

"I fucking hate you Stephen. What if I didn't-"

"Then I would've removed it myself. It was faster to fall that distance than safely float, and that radar fault was catching up to us rather rapidly, so I figured I'd get the thing to the ground at a faster rate, falling."

Tails spoke nothing more for a few minutes as Stephen began moving the truck to its surprisingly fast cruise speed, 200 miles per hour. These trucks, after all, were designed to catch Sonic or Shadow if ever they were to become hostile to GUN. However, with those hedgehogs able to move faster than the speed of sound, that was nearly impossible.

* * *

Sonic and Sarah both studied the map carefully. They had one chance, to go in the base and quickly retrieve the emeralds before the security realized intruders had breached the gate.

"We'll move in through this pipe, and sneak through the air ducts, popping out here and here. You have the more difficult one, hidden in the deeper sections of the base, but I have the other two, so it will be more dangerous for me."

"What if you can't get both of them dad?" Sarah asked, looking up from the metal hand she was screwing back together, tightening it for battle.

"Oh, I will." Sonic declared. "Besides, I'll talk to you through these little communicators Stephen set up for us. They also have maps in them, but I figure, it is always best to know where you're going first, not having to look on the way."

"I guess you've got a point there…" Sarah trailed off, obviously nervous about this hostile assault. Sure, she and Stephen had infiltrated a base before, but they had done it using pure stealth. Stephen had transformed into a human after sneaking into the facility with Sarah through the vents, and then paraded around with her under a specimen table all the way up until they had to start running.

She had never run into a building that was trying to keep her out before.

* * *

As Stephen drove the vehicle up to the front gate of the fort, he made a single motion to Tails and announced it to the crew.

"Attention everyone, this is your captain speaking, please remain silent, we are approaching the front gate of the GUN bastion. Tails get inside your compartment." Stephen sat upright and placed a collected look upon his face. All he had to do was get through an automated check, then sit inside a parking lot while Sonic and Sarah snuck out, and then, unleash the hounds.

As the truck slowed to a stop in front of the automated security gate, Stephen flashed a toothy smile.

"GUN TRUCK MODEL 18902, WELCOME BACK." All the truck did was make sure a human was driving, and ID the truck's license plate and GUN tracker, which had been disabled up until now.

"Aye to you to. It is good to be back." Stephen smirked, rolling forwards in his behemoth of a truck.

A group of uniformed officers approached the truck as it moved its way to a parking spot.

"Is there a problem, officers?" Politeness, even to your enemy, went a long way.

"Model 18902, huh? This is an old model…" One remarked.

"Yeah, this baby's been purring a long, long while." Stephen was sure to keep his cool.

"Well, just checking, you know. You heard about the death threat, right?"

"No, I must have missed that memo… my radio's been acting up lately."

"Yeah, the furries sent a death threat out to Omen and claim to invade a big base and destroy everything, so we've doubled our guard and manually check each vehicle for stowaways."

Stephen tried not to sweat, "you don't say…"

"So, you're carrying weapon shipments?" Another asked, walking towards the back of the truck.

"Yes, sir."

"May we check in back to take stock for them?"

_Aw fuck. _"Yes, sir, you can." Stephen smiled as the three men left the side of his truck and made their way to the back, following the side at a slow pace.

Stephen reach for his radio and whispered, "Flowers, evac ASAP. Unleashing the hounds now."

The men reached for the lever on the back of the semi, and the doors immediately burst open and a massive wave of flying contraptions burst out, opening fire on the humans, and rushing into the low airspace above the base, too close to open the anti-air batteries on. They were fairly safe, until the humans could get out their hand held weaponry.

From the front of the truck, a panel flipped open, and two tubes, both large enough to fit through, appeared. Two missile-like balls shot forth from the holes, and they sped over the land towards the base, easily shredding through the first floor.

Tails hopped from his hiding spot and fastened his seatbelt hastily. Grabbing controls, he began shooting away at random things, anything that would go boom. Stephen smashed the hull of the truck into just about anything he could. The metal that the modified Gun vehicle was made of was nearly invincible, so Stephen had no fear of breaking it. The two kept at their distraction, hopefully, it would only have to last a few more minutes.

* * *

Alarms blasted as Sonic sped through the corridors of scientists and guardsmen. Attacking was not on his mind yet, speed was. The thought of his daughter, whom he had separated with a few minutes ago, troubled him, but he had to be sure that she could fend on her own. He only focused on speed, and vault A-103, the first, easiest location of one of the Chaos Emeralds.

"StD, minutely report from Big Flower. I'm en route to A-103, all halls are clear, no real opposition has been met. If this keeps up, hell, I could have all three in a matter of seconds."

As he said that, a bullet shot across his left ear, burning a bit of fur.

* * *

"StD, minutely report from Little Flower. I'm headed towards H-597, but the elevators are locked, a small setback, but I'll prevail. This arm of yours has many uses."

Sarah tapped the microphone once more, silencing it, and held her mechanical arm up to the front of the elevator door. In seconds, the doors were melted, presenting a series of cables, ripe for the using.

Sarah grabbed one and shot down the shaft. **(A/N: Just so people don't ask me, Rose is a kind of flower, thus the code names, if you figured it out beforehand, good for you, you get a cookie.)**

* * *

"Commander Omen! Sir!" A loyal GUN lieutenant saluted in front of the Commander of all GUN.

"What is it?" The grumpy narcoleptic growled.

"Our largest military bastion has been broken into, sir!"

"WHAT?! Send back up immediately! Who has assaulted us?"

"It would appear that Stephen and a group of radical furries have broken into the perimeter, sir!"

"Fuck... me… is that not the base that has all of our secret weapons?"

"Most of them, sir. But it also contains the Chaos Emeralds."

"Then Sonic _MUST_ be with them! I don't need order to crush them, Omen, I'm going to rip off his head!" Damian howled from behind, his chair whooshing away with Bokkun caught in the jet stream.

"I can never reason with that fat fellow…" Omen yawned. "Oh hell… I- must retire. It has been a long, tiresome day for me, and I must retire. Please, update me if anything more serious then that is to occur. That is all." Omen staggered off to his room and opened the door.

He was passed out four steps into his chamber.

* * *

Sonic skidded to a halt, making a 100 yard black spot in the pure white tile. "This is it!"

There was a massive blast door starting to close in front of him. In the middle of that vast room, stood a lone, clear Chaos Emerald.

"Piece of cake!" Sonic cheered as he slid into the room, the door closing slowly behind him.

One problem occurred in this plan, however. The moment the gem was off the pedestal, a battalion of mechanical soldiers fell from the ceiling, one thing the blue hero hadn't paid attention to.

Lasers spread across the room at the hedgehog, a quick death, had he not been able to jump very high, and move at sonic speeds. Many of the lasers, a design error, the hedgehog was sure, kept moving across the room, blasting a hole in the wall, and taking out a few robots as well.

"My lucky day? Woo hoo!" Sonic cheered, uttering a single chant. "Chaos Control!"

In an instant, time slowed to a near halt. Sonic ran as fast as he could to the truck, dodging stationary people, turrets, and soldiers. The moment he appeared outside, time began to speed up, and he rushed over to the back of the moving truck, hardly moving, in his perspective.

In the back of the back of the truck, there was a chamber for the Emeralds to be placed, powering the truck further, and keeping them very safe. Sonic inserted his stolen Emerald there, and hopped out of the truck's interior.

"StD, minutely report from Big Flower. I've returned one jewel to base, I'm proceeding to E-309. I'll be back in a flash."

* * *

"StD, minutely report from Little Flower. I've located the blast door for H-579, it is locked shut, and blaster fire won't penetrate it, looking for alternate route."

Sarah tapped her communicator and began looking around mid run, surely there was a vent or something that could let her in. _What are you thinking? Stealth isn't an option! _

Sarah looked at the area around the door for a weak spot. Sure enough, the walls around looked considerably weaker.

_POW_

However, it appeared that it was still too strong for her weapon. _If I had that Emerald now, this wouldn't be a problem… I could warp through a wall, or apply the gem to my arm and beef it up._

_WHOOSH_

Another shot streaked passed her head. Sarah noticed something strange about it though. It pierced the wall, slightly, but it did leave a pencil sized hole.

_If I could get enough of them, I could break that wall…_

"You can't catch me!" She taunted, provoking more shots at the weak wall. So far, not a person hit her.

As she ran, she whacked the humans firing at her with her metal arm, knocking them unconscious. Slowly but surely, the wall began to look like Swiss cheese. A single minute of thrashing about, and Sarah lunged at the wall with her metal arm outstretched. Under her immense speed and force, the wall crumbled to pieces, and she entered the chamber.

Carefully walking into the room, she grabbed the Emerald, and tried to bolt out of the room.

_THUD_

"What?" She asked aloud as she stood up, she'd ran into nothing.

_THUD_

She ran into another nothing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Sarah stood up, placing her hand in front of her. Sure enough, a giant transparent down had fallen down over her, trapping her.

"Well shit…"

_WHACK_

"OW!" She yelped as something smacked her across the face with brutal force.

_WHACK!_

_WHACK!_

_WHACK!_

Something, or many somethings, with a cloaking device on was attacking her.

_WHACK!_

_WHACK!_

_WHACK!_

_WHACK!_

The onslaught continued as Sarah was beating into walls that didn't appear to her. Finally, she held her arms together and blocked something.

Sarah growled as she jumped to the center of the room very quickly. There were a lot of thudding noises in the area as the things approached her. Sarah jammed the Yellow Chaos Emerald into her arm as a last act of desperation against this foe. Throwing her arm up into the air, her arm began to change very rapidly.

Her mechanical fingers twisted outwards, pointed at the ground just around her, and her wrist began to swirl on a pivot, spinning the fingers around and around in a near perfect circle. The Yellow Jewel within her arm began to shine brightly, and she watched as a yellow energy was sucked into each finger tip as the Jewel spewed out energy. From her fingers, beams of golden energy shot down at the space around her feet, still spinning around her. Slowly, the fingers curled back up, striking anything in the room with their power.

Mechanical behemoths, concealed from sight, writhed in agony as the finger lasers ripped their husks apart, inch by inch. The walls too, received no mercy. Three layers of the walls around the room were not only burned through, but also destroyed.

Sarah cringed at the thought of people, however guilty, dying from this onslaught. The beams kept moving upwards until they met above her head, wither combined energy decimating the ceiling above her, granting her an escaped route.

Her arm went limp for a few moments after the lasers died out, and Sarah made a strong leap into the room above her, trying to utilize this new path to get out of the base.

"StD, minutely report from Little Flower. I have retrieved the second jewel, reporting back to the vehicle presently."

* * *

"StD, minutely report from Big Flower. I have located the third Jewel, and I am entering room now, there is no resistan- BZZZT" Stephen and Sarah, both hooked up to the same triple communications link, heard Sonic's communicator fizzle out.

"Shit!" Stephen cursed from his chair. With one hand on the wheel, he tried to reach Sarah. But, her communicator had vanished as well. "No! Sarah!" Stephen knew where she was.

* * *

Sarah threw the thing out of her ear and made a mad dash to E-309. With tears blurring her vision she rushed to make sure her father was ok, he boyfriend could wait for this one.

* * *

Sonic noticed the static in his ear and decided to toss out the communicator, it was bugging him.

"Why is there no resistance? This is weird, the door is open and there is nothing but the gem inside."

_It's a trap, I shouldn't do it, but I know I have to. I've gotten out of some pretty shitty situations before, so this should be a piece of a cake, it is GUN after all._

Sonic boldly strutted into the room like he was in charge, and immediately after, the door slammed together tight, blotting out most of the light in the room. The dim glow of the Purple Chaos Emerald gleamed in the darkness, illuminating the only thing Sonic thought he had to worry about.

Alert, but calm, Sonic continued his strut to the Emerald.

A strange wind blew in his face, and his stopped.

"What the hell was that? It felt like someone just ran in front of me…"

The wind came again, this time, knocking Sonic to his feet. As the old hero started to stand up, a red, white, and black sneaker was in front of him. A golden bracelet linked what might have been a sock to the creature's foot.

"Shad-" A sharp whack to the back made him realize that the creature in front of him was clearly not the black doppelganger of himself.

Sonic fell back to the floor, and was kicked to the other side of the room. Quickly, he stood up and began to run like the wind, hoping he could outrun the faker of the faker.

Sonic made a sharp jump, and then jumped midair to thrust himself at the fake hedgehog. He stood still after he landed, watching the creature's neck twist back into place. A wry smile of the eerily familiar face gave Sonic a chill down his spine, this battle was far from over.

Speedily running around, Sonic attempted this attack again, but the black creature vanished, running quickly himself. Sonic stopped as he skidded on the ground, The blue hedgehog's eyes strained themselves in the darkness trying to located the foe.

Another blast of wind provoked a sudden jump and relocation of Sonic's standing place. This android was fast, and mean, and bent of destroying Sonic.

Suddenly, the room was quiet, and Sonic saw a shadow amongst shadows in the corner of the room. Apparently, the android was searching for him too. Sonic sped up to a dash and readied himself for a flying kick. The machine moved just too late. Sonic pounded the arm of the sentinel into the wall, severing it from its body. The android shrieked in pain as its limb was knocked loose.

Sonic stood back up, and began to walk to the gem in the middle of the room. In second he was on the ground with a sharp pain in his back. The metal guardian lifted its foot back to kick Sonic. Sonic rolled out of the way, missing the foot by just hardly an inch. Hopping back onto his feet, Sonic began to run away, trying to think of a plan to attack the robot again.

His back weakened, his running was a bit slower, however, and thus, the android managed to catch up to him. Placing itself in Sonic's path, it darted at his foot and smashed into his leg with its metal head.

Sonic fell to the ground screaming, his ship rubbery and unsupportive, glancing at it only promoted screaming.

The robot approached him, limping, a single arm raised in triumph, about to smash the heroes head in. A burst of light from the door made both heads in the room turn, despite the agonizing pain that it caused. A light blue figure charged into the room with a glowing arm, running at sonic speeds.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAD!" Sarah screamed as her clawed arm smashed into the head of the Shadow Android, successfully removing its head, and making her own arm partially malfunction.

"Sar-OW!" Sonic yelped as his shattered leg twitched.

"Let's get out of here dad, right now…" Sarah let him climb onto her back, and she used her broken mechanical arm to help secure him.

"Sarah, we're doomed, there is no way we can get out of here with you holding me like this… one of us is bound to get shot!"

"SHUT UP DAD!" Sarah growled, obviously worked up to reason with.

Sarah grabbed the purple gem off of the stand in the middle and roared. "CHAOS CONTROL!" A light blue bubble encased the two, and time slowed to a stop.

Sarah jogged moving sluggishly through the base under the influence of Chaos Control. Under the doubled power of both Emeralds, everything was stopped all the way up until they made it inside of the truck, and only then, after putting both emeralds into the chamber, did time start moving again.

"Sarah! Sonic!" Stephen chirped from his cockpit into the back, "I thought we'd lost you both! Thank heavens!"

"Thank nothing yet Stephen, we need to get out of here NOW!" Sonic demanded, fastening his seat belt in his seat, right next to Sarah.

"Don't worry, I've sent out a beacon telling all of our remaining troops to come back, surprisingly we've only lost about 2 in the whole group, which, although horrible, is pretty good seeing as I expected to lose about 75 percent of our men and women here…"

As Stephen babbled on as he drove, many of the flying units flooded into the back of the truck, locking into a variety of docks in the cramped walls. It was oddly tight quarters in the back of the vast vehicle, and this always bugged Sonic since he walked inside.

"All remaining 38 fighters accounted for, exodus beginning!" Stephen announced as he thrust the tank like car into the wall, bursting out of the base with ferocious speed.

"SOOONIIIC!" A voice rumbled over a megaphone behind the base. Tails glanced in the video screen positioned to look behind the truck, and saw the unthinkable.

"Oh no… Eggman…" he groaned.

There he was, in a modified Egg Emperor, charging towards the truck, and gaining on them. "Didn't we see this thing before?" Stephen asked his fox partner.

"Yeah, see those shinier sheets of metal? He just repainted it and replaced some parts."

"Want to go get him?" Stephen questioned calmly.

"Sure!" Tails unfastened his seat belt and sat in a pocket behind the cabin.

In moments, Tails vanished, and from the top of the truck, a plane shot out. Blue and yellow, the old Tornado rumbled into the air in its jet form, trying to distract Damian while Stephen and the Emeralds escaped.

"I won't be fooled by that plane! I know Sonic is in that Truck along with the Emeralds, and I will have my revenge!" Damian roared into his speakers, flying faster towards the truck.

Stephen in the cockpit whispered angrily, not on speakers, "oh no you don't sonny, let me show you how to speed up a tank…" Throw a switch and pushing a large lever forwards, six turbines rumbled out of hiding and burst backwards, thrusting the truck forwards at death defying speeds. Luckily for Stephen this was all a large plain.

Damian cursed as the truck began to get away, and then recalled something from the back of his mind. He had had a dream about this event occurring, and thus installed boosters into this assault craft just to catch up with them.

Pressing a button, and piloting the ship forwards, he did little to dodge Tails' attacks, and pushed onwards towards the truck.

"Stephen, I can't do much at this speed, I'm going to go back to base, you better be warned though, he's gaining very fast… I think it is time to use your attack. Good luck, and see you at home." With that, Tails and his Tornado darted back up into the sky, looking for a GUN, radar deprived zone to enter the upper atmosphere where their castle existed.

"Roger that Foxy loxy…" Stephen responded lethargically. With a loose grin, he flipped a panel around and slammed a fist down on the button recently concealed.

"Everyone make sure your seatbelts are on a fastened, things are about to get very, VERY bumpy."

From the outside, the truck began to rumble, plates and panels on the outer hull of the truck shifted and relocated, revealing massive metal shafts and contraptions. The very end of the truck folded outwards, and split, revealing two limb-like structures which dug into the ground and flipped the vehicle into the air. The cabin where Stephen was twisted down, and condensed a bit, making itself more streamlined, similar to a helmet.

Flaps of the top of the truck flanked outwards and back, forming protrusions that vaguely resembled shoulder armor or wings. And the middle of the truck, last to change, let out two massive arms, each loaded with hands and fingers, one holding a large metal sword.

In the very middle of the now "neck" of the creation, three gleaming jewels shone out like a beautiful necklace.

In his cockpit, Stephen quietly and calmly chanted "transformers, more than meets the eye… transformers, robots in disguise…" Then, smiling widely, he placed himself inside the new control system, a body cast, ready to respond to his every reaction.

In the back, the wings flapped hard, steadying the automaton, and leaning it backwards as the six engines propelled in unison.

Damian Robotnik, with his puny Egg Emperor, watched in horror as the gigantic behemoth held the vast sword up towards him and began to charge. Taking an evasive maneuver, Damian lunged to the side as Stephen and his once truck, now mech, made an aerial swoop at him.

Stephen's machine was at least 5 times the size of Damian's, and thus, should've been slower and less maneuverable, but the size didn't stop him at all. With the aid of three Chaos Emeralds, Stephen not only chased Damian down, but also trapped him and grabbed his machine.

Pulling the scared doctor towards the cockpit, Stephen smiled at him wickedly.

"Get out of my sight!" The creation growled to the creator, and tossed the Egg Emperor into the air.

As the machine came down, Stephen took his weapon and batted the Egg away, smashing a bulk of it into scrap. If the Doctor was able to escape this, he'd be too shaken up for at least a week to challenge the might of Stephen for awhile.

"C'mon guys, we're heading home." Stephen declared, and sped off into the distance, with their loot of three Chaos Emeralds, and all but two of their crew, whose names would be honored the next day.

With a jump, Stephen piloted the metal automaton into the atmosphere, and towards the floating base of Laputa, hidden from all radar and sight.

* * *

**I will try to update soon, I think though, that the next chapter will be really, REALLY short, and then I'll tell the tale of Luna and Brian in the chapter after. If you could be so kind as to tell me what you want, I may consider it. Should I write a short chapter, summing up the Stephen side of the story for a bit, and then in a more massive chapter, write out the tale of Luna and Brian? Or should I just combine them?**

**More coming soon...**


	16. A Break in the Action

**This chapter will be short, my apologies, I am making a larger next chapter... I promise.**

* * *

Families of those who left for the invasion waited patiently as the remains of the truck unloaded into the docking bay. Sarah and Stephen helped Sonic out as the last people to exit the vehicle, saddening a single family.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed, as Stephen abandoned his potential father in law and went to console the crying family. "YOU TOLD ME YOU'D BE SAFE!"

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Sonic cringed as he spoke.

"BUT LOOK AT YOUR LEG! You'll never run again!" Amy declared.

"Mom, I'm sure Stephen can fix his leg up a bit, there's no need to worry."

"How did this happen?"

"He took on the third Chaos Emerald, and it was booby trapped, just like the rest of them. A Shadow Android in the dark is a bit difficult to destroy, if you ask me…" Sarah sighed.

"And what happened to YOU?!" Amy demanded, pointing at her crushed mechanical arm.

"It would seem as if I am due for an upgrade… but until I absolutely need it, I won't pressure Stephen, he's got enough to worry about for a bit, what with Sonic's leg and all. I whacked too many things with this arm at high speeds; it isn't built to take that kind of punishment." Sarah detached the limp arm, and held it in her normal hand.

Amy grabbed her daughter and hugged her tight, letting Sonic sit in his wheelchair. "I was so worried…" Amy whispered, crying ever so lightly.

In the distance, Stephen nodded his head low, "yes, we will hold a memorial for Phil, he has not died for nothing. We do indeed have a chance now. If it weren't for his sacrifice, we wouldn't stand a chance against GUN right now. I am forever grateful towards you, you let me take him to war." Stephen bowed once more and returned to Sarah and her family.

"Phillip the Duck, and Charlie the Rooster, our two casualties. A very good number, really, but any death is frowned upon eventually… I have to hunt down Charlie's family, after that, I'll go with you three to the operating room to fix Sonic's leg up, ok?" The three of the Rose family nodded as Stephen walked away towards the GUN truck with eloquent poise. From their standing point, they watched for a moment as Stephen shut the doors, and began extracting the Chaos Emeralds, this was obviously first on his list.

* * *

Sarah sat in the OR waiting for her mom and boyfriend to enter the room. Her dad was on the table with his shattered leg cleaned and ready for operation. Gassed as he was, Sonic looked anxious and frightened. Never in his life had he injured his leg, and the inability to run for even a day may kill him.

Amy was nearly growling at Stephen as he strolled out of the readying room, both faces more cross than usual. From within Stephen's chest, a glow emanated, making Sarah shiver a little bit. It was an eerie sight.

"Listen Amy, there are no need for tools this time, we won't even need to penetrate his skin, assuming this works."

"I won't have you testing any new ways of surgery on my husband while I'm around little boy! We'll do this the old fashioned way that I know will work!"

"Listen Amy," Stephen ground his teeth together while looking at her, "I have just about 4 million things to do right now. I have to calculate our time left before XT slaughters us, I have to run diagnostics on the entire base covering the 5 hours we were gone, I have to repair a battling machine, I have to repair your husband's leg, I have to fix your daughter's arm, I have to install retaining chambers for these three new Chaos Emeralds, and if that wasn't enough, operate a covert base, flying high in the atmosphere while dodging a company that literally has possession of all of the resources on Mobius to use at their disposal, all while keeping you people safe. Seeing as I'm not one of you, this is a very generous thing of me to do, and I suggest you shut up, and do it my way, for I've got a lot of shit to take care of." Stephen hardly raised his voice, but it provoked Amy.

The pink hedgehog was fuming as Stephen approached a drugged Sonic cracking his knuckles. As Stephen's hand lay down over Sonic's leg, Amy lunged at him, fearful of the repercussions of this mad scientist's experimentations. Amazingly, she dove right through him.

Sarah and Amy both jumped, it was as if Stephen was a ghost.

Shaking his head, Stephen plunged his bare hands right into the leg of Sonic and began to reposition the bone fragments regardless of the feat he just accomplished. Slowly, Sonic's leg began to take shape again.

"How the hell did he just do that Sarah?" Amy demanded.

"I-I have no idea… Stephen hides some abilities from me… apparently… he can be a ghost?"

"Ok, Sarah, Amy, I'm sorry for being an ass right now, but this is the quickest way to mend a bone, going right into the leg. Right now, I have the Clear Chaos Emerald within my chest. With it, I can make areas of my body intangible if I will it. In some senses, you're right Sarah, I'm like a ghost. I tested this in my room a few minutes ago; I can sink through floors, walk through walls, and yes, reach into people. It leaves no residue of me, so it is completely safe, as long as I remember to become fully intangible as I pull out of him leg, else I'll puncture it from the inside."

"So… you're hands are passing through him… but-"

"My finger tips, or whatever they are at this point, are not…" Stephen sighed, his eyes closed deep in thought.

A few minutes later of silence, Stephen abruptly straightened himself upwards, and stretched. Walking over to a sink to wash his hands, he spoke to Amy from across the room.

"You can give him a cast now; I know you're more than qualified. Again, my apologies for being an ass. Now if you'll excuse me…" Stephen, hands dripping wet, walked straight into a wall and vanished.

Silently, as if to stay clear of Stephen's short temper, Amy wrapped her husband's leg up in cloth and plaster, successfully binding the hedgehog's leg for a good six weeks. She knew he was going to need help through this; he was too hyperactive to have a broken leg. Nothing kept him bound for long.

* * *

Stephen was about to meltdown. He'd lost two men, which was inexcusable. Even though he'd apologized to the families, and the men knew the risk, it was still his fault. To top it off, he was having troubles with focusing enough to make energy containers for the Chaos Emeralds he'd collected, and thus, problems were occurring. After the Purple Chaos Emerald started fizzling inside its capsule for the fifth time, Stephen set it down on the workshop's table.

Gently he stroked the amulet around his neck, resurfacing under his command. A bit calmed, he felt two hands grab his waist.

"C'mon genius, you need a rest, and so do I." the voice pulled him backwards, and he smiled as he followed along.

"Thank you Sarah." He whispered just over his breath. Sarah locked her lips over his and took him back to her hut for a nap.

As the two lay in the bed, however, a wave of terror overcame Stephen, provoking a shiver. In his mind, the calculations were done. XT would be back in less than 5 days.

* * *

**On a different note, I have decided the next story I will be writing, to any fans who follow me wherever I go. The next realm to be XT'd will be the Halo Universe. Wish me luck, lol.**


	17. The Journal

**Ok, this is it. It is pretty long, so it is a good length, and it is a bit hectic with the PoVs, I hope I can clarify them with my dividing skills as it get's finalized... (It looks messy on the program...) But, it is mainly in Brian's perspective, or thrid person surrounding Brian.**

**Be warned, for here is my expecitive statement: There are a few, (a bit more than few) sexual references and mentions of sex within this chapter, if you feel disgusted or distrubed, please skip them, don't complain about them, (I don't want to hear it.) If you read this M story because you think I will place a lemon of Tails and Cosmo or some random couple, you might as well not be reading, I do not put those fully into my stories, yet. So, it is bad, but not bad enough for the perverts.**

**In all that it implies, enjoy.**

* * *

Day 1:

I have decided to catalog the events of this journey for two reasons, well, three. One, if I die, and someone finds me, then they can get an idea as to what I tried to do, and how crazy I must've been to do it. Two, if I ever have kids, it will be so fricking sweet to show them what their dad did. Three, this is my first real trip with a girl, and well, I want to remember this.

My name is Brian Prower, and I and my girlfriend, if she wants to call herself that, are on a suicide mission to collect a Chaos Emerald, dropped by our ally Shadow the Hedgehog. Why is this suicide you ask? Well, we have no support from our main base, which I will limit myself in referencing for protection in case this journal is recovered by the wrong people. Also, we've only been given a limited supply, and we must get back before the enemies secret weapon does, or else we are all as good as dead.

So far, not much has happened. On the first day, we made it to the swamplands of Myrington, far away from any civilization, or anyone who could pose a threat. Things are looking ok. We have enough food to last us for 4 days, and I'm sure we'll find more along the way, even though I have never killed an innocent little creature before. We've just set up camp, my girlfriend and I, and ready to rough it in the wilderness for our first-

"Rough it in the wilderness?" Luna cackled as she watched Brian write.

"What?" The plant fox asked in confusion.

"That sounds like wild sex you moron! You're more a pervert than I give you credit for." She chuckled, and threw herself onto his lap.

"Well what do you want me to do? It's in ink." Brian replied, setting the paper journal down and grabbing the sides of the girl on his lap, facing him almost eagerly.

"Nothing." She linked lips with the plantlike creature and pushed him down with her forcefulness, strong for a puny girl.

"I think you're the pervert. You just sit on my lap and make out with me? You're like… I don't even know."

"Would you believe me if I told you I was a virgin still?"

"I don't know, you seem more like a nymph to me." Brian wriggled out from underneath her, and wrapped himself in his sleeping bag.

"Well I am a virgin. Whether you believe me or not."

"You do not act like one." Brian laughed. Luna glared at him as she squeezed into her sleeping bag.

"I don't know what happened… I guess… well, only Brunis did I really ever want to sleep with… you have no idea how upset I was after he chose your sister. Whatever happened to her?"

"Well, she's gone. No one's seen or heard from her since Richard the Cat was let out of his insane asylum, and that's when my mom and dad started their fight, I swear neither of them have had sex since. Painful on both, if you ask me."

"Why did they fight?"

"Well, my mom swore that Daisy was gone, never to return, that Richard had gotten her and turned her into a slave, or likewise killed her. My dad couldn't think that, so he tried to convince her otherwise. So, my mom got mad at him, her own insecurities taking over, and she shut him out of his life, not wanting to talk about anything for the longest time. Then my dad got mad at that because there was no way to talk to my mom, and then, years later, it is still going on like this."

"Ouch…"

"So, what has it been like for you? I mean, I really know nothing about you."

"Basically, I have little to no tale to tell, it is all really lame really. I was abandoned at birth, and forced to live on my own, and a runaway Brunis, fought for me when I was about to be raped by a group of muggers. Well, I take that back… I never knew that they were going to rape me, but, it felt like it."

"Great beginning," Brian muttered sarcastically.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Then, Brunis and I got to live together in a makeshift house on the outskirts of town, and we both worked to eat and maintain the house until finally he wanted to go find Daisy again, and I came with him. I'm sure you've heard the rest really… from there, Brunis started spending less time with me, and more with Daisy, and I was forgotten, I was so depressed I begged XT to help me. The next thing I know, I have a massive bump on my head, and I pass out. I wake up and you and cal are on top of me."

"We were not on top of you! We were looking at you while you were sleeping."

"Yeah, that's not creeping or anything." Luna smiled.

"Do you love me?" Brian asked suddenly.

"I'm still deciding. I mean, you are the nicest person to me in this world right now, and I know you'd take care of me when no one else would-" A dream flashed into the mind of Luna for a brief moment, and she shivered.

"Are you alright?" Brian sat up a bit moving closer to her.

"I'm fine. Let's get some sleep, ok?"

"Ok, goodnight." Brian mumbled, dimming their lantern.

In moments they were both asleep.

* * *

Day 2:

We shifted around a lot of the packed goods today. Now the packs are better, in my mind at least. Luna has two of the three jugs of water, and I have one. We each have an equal amount of food now too. But, I graciously took the tent, other Extreme Gear and most of the supplies for survival, Luna was getting tired. Odds are, I'm more enduring than she is, and besides, I don't mind, I can carry it, it only weighs like 50 pounds altogether, and that isn't really _that_ heavy… I think.

We've already set out from our camp, making sure to leave nothing important behind. Right now, we're on a lunch break, and my girlfriend is relieving herself, you know, it has to happen sometimes.

"Luna, you almost done? We ought to get moving soon, those guys need the gem fast!"

"There is no toilet paper! Do you realize the changes I must go through here?"

"Use a leaf city girl!" Brian smirked towards the pile of bushes that Luna was in.

A few whimpers later, Luna emerged from the jungle, and shivered with discomfort.

"Come now, it wasn't that horrible."

"Yes. It. Was." Luna growled.

"You done with your lunch?"

"Yeah, let's go moving." Luna picked up her backpack and swung it over her shoulder loosely.

"You know, you should really tighten that…" Brian warned, fastening his belts on tightly and securely.

"Yeah, whatever. It is too uncomfortable tightened."

* * *

The hours dragged on as they marched side by side, hacking through the brush. The terrain was maddening, continuous swamplands for miles and miles, and occasionally an outcrop of rocks. As they moved on, the rocks grew in size and frequency. They were, after all, approaching a mountain.

Brian was getting antsy though, always pressuring Luna to hurry. From his own mental calculations, judging the distance Shadow could've warped XT, they couldn't have more than 6 days, it had to be less. From that conclusion, he was worried. They had about 7 more miles in the swamplands, and then after that, a huge climb up a near cliff to the plateau where the Northern Plains were located, and then they had over 50 miles to cover on the open plains, which, even jogging, would take then all day. Then, they'd have to get home in time before-

"BRIAN!" Luna shrieked, jumping away suddenly.

Brian blinked for a moment and realized that Luna was gone. _Shit._ Giving a cursory glance at his surroundings, he noted that a beast was in the area, about to lunge at him.

Ducking quickly, he watched the wild cat jump towards a tree. Up in the tree, he noticed a panicked she-wolf in the tree, throwing her backpack at the animal wildly, trying to fend it off.

Brian's hand darted to his belt and he grabbed a bead from his belt and threw in at the tigress quickly, knocking her unconscious. However, the female tiger had already attached its claws to Luna's backpack, and as it fell, it took the pack with her taking Luna down too.

Down they came, into the swamp's waters, and Brian was a meter away from the bog's edge. Snatching Luna as quickly as he could, he fell back onto the ground with her in his arms. The two got up quickly to retrieve the supplies, but there was no trace of them. The bog had consumed both the tiger and the supplies the bag carried.

"Oh shit… I'm so sorry…"

"It's ok Luna… it is ok… we just can't eat as much or drink as much from now on…"

"We're so fucking screwed. We just lost two jugs of water and all of our cooking supplies, and about half our food." Luna stared into the bog, worried.

"The way I see it…" Brian began, "we can ration this food up until the Chaos Emerald, but then we'll have to figure something out… we won't make it back without help…"

"Should we use the communicator?"

"Not yet… not until we're sure we're doomed." Brian sighed.

"That's a pleasant way to think about it."

"Besides, I can eat leaves if I have to, to let you have more food, I don't need too much… we'll make it… just not comfortably."

Luna scratched her head, "how much more do we have until we reach the mountains?"

"If we don't stop for dinner until we're ready to sleep, we should be able to see them…"

"Good. Very good, now let's go, before more animals decide to kill us." Luna marched onwards, with Brian following in tow.

* * *

"Bad news Luna…" Brian reported after scouting the general area for dry land. "This area gets all of the runoff from the mountain, there isn't a dry camp for another four miles anywhere."

It was very dark now, and traveling further was out of the question.

"So how is this a problem?" Luna questioned curiously.

"Well, that means we can't but down a tent without risking sinking into the bog ourselves."

"No tent? Shit… we'll be eaten alive…"

"Yeah, I know… But, we need to sleep, and the best idea I've got is a tree. We could sleep on a big branch together. If we both share the bag, then that should keep us from falling off the edge, you know, balance the weight?"

"You weigh a LOT more than me, Brian."

"I know I do, but perhaps the bag of material would shift the weight in your favor?"

"Yeah… I guess… so, which tree?"

"Probably this one…" Brian started scuffling up the tree.

In minutes, the two were set up in the tree.

"This is kind of cozy." Luna almost sarcastically commented, noting that her hip, partially bare, was brushing up against Brian.

"It is…" Brian agreed honestly, the branch wide enough to easily support both of them.

"Oh man… you're killing me…" Luna gasped for breath.

"I'm not that big!"

"No! You're scent is killing me! It is like… intoxicating… in all the bad yet good ways." Luna practically moaned as she sniffed the air.

"Are you ok?"

"Can we have sex?" Luna asked immediately.

"Uh, whoa. I don't think it would be a good idea… we are in a hurry, and if I hurt you, as you claim to be a virgin, or if I'm too tired, than this trip is wasted." Brian shrugged. "I mean, hell, I'd love to, but, now is one of the worst times to ask that."

"Can you please at least do something to me to get me off this horny sense of mind?" Luna begged.

"How the hell would I do that?"

"Just…" Luna sighed, and shrugged, "never mind…"

In moments, Brian was asleep and dreaming of what could have just been the most amazing night of his life. In his dreams though, he swore he heard moaning and rustling too authentic to be a dream.

* * *

Day 3:

I awoke this morning with an achy back. Luna seemed overjoyed that morning, and I only now know why. Last night, she had gotten out of the sleeping back and used the hand of mine that was outside our sleeping bag as a dildo. I am pleased, disturbed, and angry at this. I wish I was awake to see this, but, alas, my time will come.

Evidence of this incident came in three parts. One, her good mood, two, the wet spots on my hand and the tree from her, and three, she had a surplus of bites from bugs from the five minutes it took her outside the bag.

I am a little mad at her lack of self control, but I can deal with it. Odd that it is her who is having the issues with sexual frustration, and not me. I swear though, once I'm done with this trip, I pray that she is still acting the same…

That all aside, we've got our bigger challenge today. We are to climb to the top of the plateau by sundown, and we've started early. It is a steep, steep climb up, a good mile and a half up. It is not going to be easy, and I am worried, most of our ropes were lost with the backpack. So, we'll either have to climb freely, or, I don't know… I'm thinking about hooking us up together, lessening the odds that one of us would fall back onto the stones. We'll work it out when we get there, I'm sure.

I decided to stop to write in my journal for the moment to relax a little bit while Luna ate. I had decided to skip lunch, claiming I was full from breakfast still. I'm sure my lying didn't make her believe me, because obviously, I was starving myself so she'd not have to suffer as much, else, we weren't going to make it.

We were at the foothills of the mountain now, and I had a harness ready for myself and for Luna, we were going to be tied together, we agreed, that way, if one of us fell, the other could catch them. I doubted Luna's ability to carry me, but she was a good climber, probably better than me really. With the tent, both extreme gears, and all supplies on my back, I was bound to tire first of the two of us.

We had 8 hours to climb 1.5 vertical miles, on an 86 degree slope. This was going to be pleasant.

"This actually looks kind of easy." Luna said, looking at all of the sharp rocks protruding from the wall. "We have thousands of hand holds all the way up this mountain for a good… erm… half mile?"

"One problem with those 'handholds', dear, that is called scree. It is a loose collection of rocks that could give at any moment. Either we must be very careful up this half mile, or find another route. Ultimately, it will only be quick if we don't fall."

"Give way at any moment? Jeez… this doesn't sound good…" Luna groaned.

"C'mon, we've got to start quickly if we're to make it up by sunset." Brian hooked up his harness and helped Luna with hers.

Determined, the two faced their mountainous oppressor, and headed onwards to the Chaos Emerald. The moment Brian placed his foot onto a rock, 40 fell down and the plant fox quickly recoiled in fear.

"This is going to be a long, long climb." He gulped, Luna nodded worriedly.

* * *

We now sit on a small perch on the rockface. After many cuts and bruises, my girlfriend and I have decided never to go rock climbing again, and also, that during this trip, it would be as unwise as unsafe to take another path of scree again.

Twice on me, and once on her, the pile collapsed, and we both fell down a good fifty feet, getting scraped and banged up in the process. Any time one of us went, we both went down, causing more harm than help. However, we made it, and it only took us two hours. It ought to be about 2 in the afternoon now, and that sun has vanished completely, due to the face of the mountain pointing east, the same way the sun should be shining towards. It looms before us darkly and evilly, and oh I need to get to that top so bad.

We're taking a short break to catch our breath, and we should be heading off soon… my, my, my, this is much more than I bargained for. For all of animal kind though, we must persevere. Without our goal achieved, all hope for animal life on Mobius will vanquish. We cannot fail.

"That's kind of scary… when you look at it that way." Luna sighed, standing back up.

"Yeah… I know… I wouldn't have put it there otherwise."

"Well, mountain man, let's get climbing." Luna's zeal was beginning to take the life out of Brian. Fatigued and famished, dinner couldn't wait too much longer.

Steadily, the linked couple mounted the now nearly flat face of the mountain, and began climbing. The path before them had a great deal of grooves and cracks in it, allowing for a possible climb. But this path continued on for a large section of the mountain.

Right from the start, Brian was having issues. The fox hadn't eaten much at all today, and he was carrying all of the weight, except Luna herself. His legs were wobbly with fatigue, and his stomach churned at the strain of his abdomen. His mouth dry, and body trembling, he slowly ascended to the nearest peak.

"Luna, we need to get up to another perch quickly," he told her promptly.

"Why? We've only gone up like, ten feet."

"Trust me Luna; we need to find a resting point without going down." Brian insisted.

"Above us, about 50 feet, there is a small bulge in the wall, do you think you can make it?" She asked worriedly. The little wolf had more energy than Brian, but hardly realized it. She had no knowledge of his starving.

One hand in front of the other, Brian started to make progress from his initial spot. Slowly, he was getting closer to his break. One leg, one leg, one hand, one hand, the process repeated over and over again, making sure his grip was firm enough, he gradually gain elevation.

One false move had him hanging for dear life.

Accidentally, he had taken one stroke too fast, and his arm fell off the mountain, losing its, and his, balance.

"SHIT!" He screamed, holding on tightly to the wall.

"Brian!" Luna shrieked, carefully moving down to his level. "Are you ok?"

"Just a bit shaken up." 30 feet in the air seemed pretty fatal. "I'm ok… I think…" he trailed off, glancing down.

_Bad idea…_ he thought, and tried to start climbing again.

One foot, one foot, one hand, one hand. The process was simple, yet oh so complex. Luna, seeming to be a master at climbing, quickly darted ahead to the ledge, standing on it and pulling up with all of her might.

Their cable was merely six feet long, so Brian was aided the rest of his way up.

Collapsing, he fell onto Luna, exhausted.

"So much for mountain man," Luna chuckled. "Wait… have you eaten anything?"

"Not much." Brian admitted.

"Eat, you moron. You're no use on this mission without any energy. Just a small snack would set you up for the rest of this climb, and water wouldn't hurt, would it?"

"No… it wouldn't hurt." Brian pulled out a small granola bar and devoured it in seconds.

"Now come on, we've got like about 100 of those to go before we reach the peak."

Brian peered over the edge, looking down the half mile he and Luna had climbed, and then looked up at the steep, shadowed mountain they had yet to scale.

"Oh fuck me…" He muttered, fastening whatever he loosened to get the granola out of his bag.

* * *

We may have a bit of a problem. I and my girlfriend are inside a small cave, protected from the outer world for a small while, but that's not the problem. Before we moved into this cave in the evening, a GUN probe was out near the mountains. I'm not sure, but it may have been alerted to our presence when I screamed, or the rockslides we caused, more likely the latter.

This is a big problem, if that probe detected us, then we might as well be dead. GUN would have their forces here by midnight, and have us destroyed or captured before we make it to the peak, which is a mere hundred feet of sloped slab above us.

This mission is getting crazier by the minute…

Brian closed his journal and looked at Luna, her shirt and skirt ripped violently due to their fallings in the scree. She was more naked than she was clothed by this point, and Brian couldn't help but look a bit.

"Like what you see?" Luna asked groggily.

"Uh… yeah." Brian replied as he caught the slightest glimpse of a nipple beyond a tear in the fabric.

"Sorry, not feeling it tonight." Luna covered herself partially, smirking deviously.

"You little tease…"

"Thank you, I try."

"Get some sleep." Brian commanded as he threw down the sleeping bag, "I'll join you when I'm ready; I want to do some last minute thinking about tomorrow and the next day. You know, we ought to be more careful, GUN MIGHT have spotted us."

"Yeah…" Luna suddenly sneezed, "I'm worried about that too… how we would camp out if they're monitoring the area?"

"We probably won't… so yeah, let's get our sleep now while we can…"

Luna clambered into the sack, her tail following her limply, and Brian smiled at her. Slowly, he too ventured into the sack to sleep.

* * *

_COUGH_

_COUGH_

_GROAN_

_COUGH_

_HACK_

* * *

I swear to you, I did not do this. My girlfriend is horribly sick. She's been up since about midnight hacking and coughing her lungs out. She was nearly on fire she was so hot when I took her temperature, and we've almost run out of water by now to saturate her fever. All of the food and water will be given to her from here on out. If I can't last three days without food or water, I'll try to raise some with the small power of nature that I possess.

This is where things get funky.

I think she got sick from all of those bug bites the other day, but now is not the time to blame, now is the time of choice. I've made my one decision, and from the limited consciousness she possess, my girlfriend agrees too. There is no room for failure. The fate of all animal-kind relies on us, and there will be no turning back until we have that jewel. We MUST complete our mission, and I'm taking her with me.

She lacks the energy to stand, or walk, so she'll be on my back, along with all of the supplies, up until we get to the top of the hill. From there, she'll sit on the Extreme Gears that we've brought, and use them to hover as I run like hell to the midpoint of our journey. From there, we'll turn southeast, and head on over to Mystic Ruins, there, our comrades will be waiting for us, and proper medicine will be ready for my fair she wolf.

"Luna, you ready?" Brian asked, Luna's body was deprived of her clothing, she took it off in the middle of the night, or rather, tore it off, in a vain attempt to stay cool. Normally, Brian would've spent a few extra minutes taking his time packing with a naked girl next to him, but now was not the time.

First he had to get the Chaos Emerald. Then, he had to tend to Luna. After all, he was training to be a medical engineer, to some degree, at least.

Luna's only response to his question came in the form of a tight squeeze around his body. She held onto his front with all of her might, legs wrapped around his waist, arms around his shoulders. If she wasn't sick, and Brian wasn't busy, they would've realized that they were in a sex position, and naked, but that thought hadn't yet crossed their minds.

In an animalist way, Brian crawled on all fours up the steep slope, if he hadn't over 150 pounds on him, he might have tried to walk it, it wasn't really that steep of a grade; but it was, however, steep enough to be tough on him.

In a mere minute, he was about ten feet from the top. After all, he'd only crawled about 100 feet.

Then he heard something a bit out of the ordinary. There was Luna's panting, yet another allusion to sex he hadn't yet comprehended. There was his own deep breathing. The sound of his backpack's straps breaking the wind, the sound of the wind hitting his face, and the sound of metal blades striking the sky in a rotary-

_Now wait just a God damn minute…_

_TU'TU'TUTU'TU'TU'TU'TU'TU'TU'TU'TU' _**(It is my failed attempt at an onomatopoeia... sorry...)**

Brian looked to his right and saw a black circle with a small pod underneath it growing larger and larger. It was headed right towards him.

"Are you fucking SHITTING ME?! NO GOD DAMN IT! N FUCKING O! N-O!"

Brian scuffled his way up to the top of the hill and set Luna down.

"Luna honey, they've found us, you need to get on that board, and hold on to me while I pilot it, we've got to move faster than they can, and I know GUN's choppers can't reach sonic speeds."

Luna nodded with fear, and grabbed onto Brian as he placed her on the activated Gear, while stepping onto his own. Sure, it wouldn't move as fast with him controlling two, but it would be faster than that helicopter.

Just before they managed to get moving, the helicopter hovered up from the rocky cliff, two men on the side looked at both Luna and Brian in amazement, and awe, in Luna's case, before managing to come to their senses, and raise their weapons.

By the time the crosshair was over Brian's skull, he was already travelling at 100 miles per hour, and closing in on 500. They'd be at the site in just less than twenty minutes.

* * *

A mere mile before they reached their destination, Brian felt Luna slipping. Not just slipping as in her grip, he knew she had lack of motor skills already, for he had been supporting her for a bulk of their flight. No, he felt her consciousness slipping, and that, in the medical field, was never, ever a good thing.

"Luna? Luna! C'mon girl, snap out of it! Hurry! Hurry! C'mon! NO! God damn it all… why the fuck does this happen to me, huh!?" The usually tempered fox was having none of it today.

Slowing to a halt, he found exactly what he needed, the green Chaos Emerald that was needed in the final attempt against XT. The jewel was gleaming through a small patch of dirt in a small crater in the middle of the field, right where they'd mapped it to.

Now an even bigger problem finally entered his head.

How the hell was he supposed to get back to his rendezvous point, which was a continent away, with no food or water, being chased by the landmass's police force, with only two extreme gears that would run out of energy within another hour's worth of use?

Brian closed his eyes while focusing on the problem, and when he opened his eyes, he noticed the answer was within the palm of his hand.

Looking over about twenty feet from where he found the small crater with the Emerald in it, the exodus of Shadow and XT, he found the corpse of Metal Sonic, complete with a salvageable supersonic jet engine and a variety of useable parts.

Brian pulled the one tool he never thought of using from his belt, the workshop's all-purpose inventor, and went to work.

He stripped Metal Sonic of his jet and mounted that on the back of the two Extreme Gears, which were welded together. Using the remainder of the husk of Metal Sonic, he created a small pocket to break the wind, within this, he placed the sleeping bag with Luna and the food in it. The backpack, and all of its contents, were yet to be used.

The tent he tore apart, attaching the carbon fiber rods to the front and back of the vessel, making a sort of wing-like apparatus. Hooking their climbing cables to this, he created a crude, but stable, steering device that seemed to work in his head. This was all hooked up in the shell of the leather backpack he'd been carrying, and he strapped and fastened this to himself, and used the rest of the rope to secure Luna to him.

Finally, he replaced Metal Sonic's chaos drive within his power chamber with the actual Chaos Emerald, giving the device he'd made, unlimited energy.

With a small switch at his side, he powered up the makeshift air toboggan, and watched as the helicopter, and now three high speed raider units, race towards him and his unconscious girlfriend in a desperate attempt to subdue and capture, or likewise kill, him and her.

"Not on my watch you pig headed tyrants." Brian threw the throttle, a finger of Metal Sonic, hotwired using his own network of electrodes, in full forwards, and rocketed forwards at speeds unthinkable. Using the sun above, he directed the craft towards the Mystic Ruins Zone.


	18. Catastrophe

_Tis a night of storms and gloomy air, that perks my interests and makes me dare._

_For on this night, the climax shall snare, all whom wish our heroes spared._

* * *

_The Previous Day_

Omen swore once more as he lay in his bed. A few days ago, _THE_ rebels made a frontal, and successful, assault on his secret weapons research and storage facility. And they stole the three Chaos Emeralds within. Worst of all, however, is how they managed to escape into thin air once again. They had radar place all over the world, yet somehow, once they left visual range, they made a few loops on the radar, and disappeared.

Damian, the maniac that had pursued the rebels for his own desires, was scolded thoroughly when he returned, of course, unharmed as always. Omen blamed him for their escape, and was in a sour mood as always.

"General!" A peon saluted at his door, handing a report over to him.

"What is this?" Omen read on. Apparently, a few rockslides occurred in a cliff region around noon around Myrington. The patrol group stationed in that region, far away from the slides, believed that they should investigate, and were requesting orders.

"Hmm… that's not too far from where our alien was headed, if I do remember… perhaps he is hiding out around there. Send the order to find all that is in that area, our machine must be found!"

Their grand weapon of mass destruction had vanished in a similar fashion not too long ago as well, and patrol groups around the landmass were scouring the land, and air, for him. GUN was unaware of the capabilities of this automaton, so they searched everywhere.

Upon walking into the main room, the one their pet alien ripped through on its prior exodus, Omen sorted his priorities.

"First," he muttered, "we must retrieve those Emeralds." Looking to one of his researchers he asked a simple question. "So, what's the latest on located those rebel animals?"

"No updates si-"

"Does it seem a little hot to you?" Omen asked the air as he looked up towards the ceiling, trying to locate a malfunctioning vent or something.

What he found disturbed him. Parts of the ceiling were glowing red, and getting brighter.

_BOOM_

"What the f-"

"MOVE SIR!" that researching he'd been talking to dove and pushed him away from the place he was standing at.

_CRASH_

In moments, the place Omen had been standing melted down into a pool of molten metal. The researcher was not as lucky as Omen, being caught in the blast. Omen scurried backwards, dodging the heated liquid, and stood to glance at the massive hole now dug into his base.

Thirteen floors, the hole spanned, and one extra one into the dirt underneath the base. At the very bottom, a metal contraption began stirring.

"EVERYONE! GET YOUR WEAPONS!" Omen shouted.

"GYYYAAAAAAAAAGH!" The metal howled, as four spikes shot from it, and landed on the floor above it. As if pulling it up, the pod that the spikes were connected to rose from the pool of boiling metal, unfazed and unharmed. Reshaping the spikes into two legs and two arms, the creature jumped to the third floor above the hole it had made, where Omen had been standing, and glared at him.

Their robot was back.

"General. Success." It bowed, tapping its temple with a bony finger.

The two panels it has as eyes projected onto the wall behind the General, and showed Metal Sonic, and then their old agent Shadow, being ripped apart, ruthlessly, and efficiently.

Omen and his men shivered in sadistic joy and fear of the power the creature possessed. Omen couldn't help but notice the acidic blood of Shadow, etched into the chest piece of the robot, dying its black, silver, and plum armor with streaks and splotches of crimson.

"Very good." Omen whispered in awe.

"Orders?" It growled with ferocity.

Caught up in the moment, Omen disregarded his priorities of retrieving the Chaos Emeralds, and recalled another mission that needed doing. The location of the base that the rebels were in, it had to be found.

"Locate and disable the defenses of the base that our animal enemies are positioned presently. Find that base, and bring it to its knees." _After all,_ Omen added in thought, _you do a fine job of wrecking our base everytime you come back._

From the mouth of the creature before him, a single noise, menacing and evil, was heard. "HA!"

Omen looked at the robot with curiosity. Did it… just laugh?

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" Bellowing and deep, these laughs sent shivers down the spines of all before it.

"Go." Omen scowled.

Abruptly, the creature stopped, and leapt backwards. In the middle of the air, blue jets on its feet, positioned squarely between each set of four talons shot forth and propelled it upwards, out of the hole it had made.

"General?" The men asked; the pool of liquid hardening, due to the wind tunnel.

"Their base will be found, and we will wipe the face of the planet from the rest of all anthropomorphic creatures! WE WILL WIN! HA HA!"

"Sir?" They asked yet again.

"Yes, yes, what?"

"What are we to do about the hole?"

"Seal it of course! It's letting in a draft…" Omen growled as he stormed off to his bed, feeling another spell of fatigue hitting him.

* * *

Stephen looked at the map for the four hundredth and fifty fourth time this day. Brian and Luna ought to be back in a day and a half, assuming they used their Extreme Gears on the final stretch as they were supposed to do. Like a worried father waiting for his daughter to return from her first date, Stephen scratched his head while staring at the clock.

"They're not going to be here yet… not yet…" he muttered.

"Stephen, what the hell is wrong with you? It is like you're on edge or something." Sarah noted as she threw her arms around him from behind his chair.

As head of their government like establishment, Stephen couldn't tell anyone _exactly_ why he was petrified, it would create a state of panic. So he moderately lied, as most government's do when afraid. "I'm worried for Brian and Luna."

"They're-"

"Our best, I know. But there are some things out there that our best couldn't even handle…" Stephen looked at the clock once more.

_XT is less than a day out. Brian and Luna are a day and a half… unless Brian and Luna get here within the next four hours, I don't know if we're going to make it out of this one…_

"Hey Sarah, um, can you please leave for a moment, I need to do a lot of work right now. The moment I'm done, I'll do _almost_ anything you want. But until then-"

"OK!" Sarah smiled widely, "_Almost _anything." She snickered and fled.

"Lucien, Sylvia, be on the lookout for anything abnormally fast coming remotely near our base. I want this base prepared and ready for if he comes. Perhaps we can repel him or hold him off until Luna and Brian return with the Emerald."

"My apologies, sir, did you happen to say anything abnormally fast?" Lucien questioned.

"Yes, I did. XT travels at speeds we cannot measure precisely, as he has been known to slip between dimensions as he travels, though he hasn't shown any sign of doing this recently, he can still match about two thirds the speed of light without-"

"Sir, there is an object smaller than most of our craft approaching this base from the south at a speed of 2,420,895 miles per hour and rising. It seems it originated from a GUN fortress…"

"Oh no…" Stephen's face fell flat as he watched the radar of the world hacked from GUN. The little blip was moving ridiculously fast directly towards the gap they were stationed.

"Sir, what would you have me do?"

"Um… uh… I never took a God damn lesson for this shit. How do you stand a chance against a behemoth?"

_We can't out fly him, we can't hope to win in a fight, but yeah, maybe we can hold him off before her gets-_

_BOOM!_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Screaming echoed from 12 different levels of the base.

"Activate code green, this calls for evasive internal maneuvers!" Stephen growled. "SARAH!" He called loudly, rushing into the base.

* * *

Omen and his army had been moving since their robot ploughed off through the sky. They had every intention of chasing it down, and killing off whatever it couldn't. Either way, it did seem to know where the base was, so, with that knowledge alone they'd stand a chance at ripping apart the rebels, once and for all.

At their max speeds, they'd catch up to him within the hour.

"Never soon enough…" Omen grumbled, allowing himself succumb to yet another spell of fatigue within his flagship micro base, designed by Damian, and styled after one of the outrageous ships Eggman used to use.

* * *

Cosmo screamed wildly and overly loud in an agricultural section of the fortress. Fire was everywhere, and most of the plants were crisped. She too, was on fire, and was slowly being consumed. Molten metal from the ceiling poured down on her plants from above, and she watched in horror as they came closer and closer to her.

However, those things hardly compared to the reason she was screaming.

A metal face was in the ceiling looking at her, sadistically smiling as she screamed and flailed. In an instant, the face dropped down, a body attached. Her old savior, XT-421, in a different setting of armor, more ballistic and combatant than the altruistic set her had on when she first met him, looked down upon her breaking form, nearly laughing.

In an instant, he could've crushed her. Walking away, his stomping was heard throughout that section of the base.

"I need not touch you to kill you." He bellowed as he left, letting Cosmo's frail body be consumed by the flames and molten metal.

"HEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEE!" She yelped loudly, begging for someone to come. Even though, ddep down, she knew it was hopeless. No one cared for her…

"THERE YOU ARE!" A pair of arms scooped her up deftly and two powerful tails whipped around, forcing them both into the air.

"TAAAAAILS! PUT IT OUT!" She cried, her eyes bulging and spewing tears violently.

Immediately, Tails set her on the ground and rolled her around, doing all that he could to put out the fires on her flammable body. However, it wasn't working well. The flames died down, but not out. On her scorched, mostly nude body, burnt section peeled off rather quickly.

Tails flew her quickly into another section of the base and utilized the sink there to gently apply water to the flames.

Her wails didn't stop, but the fires did.

"TAILS!" She cried, "I'm sorry!" She breathed, still in horribly pain.

"I love you…" He uttered… clutching her body tightly, yet comfortably.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She opened her eyes and a green light burst from them, shimmering in two beams shining on the walls.

"Cosmo, what's wrong? Why are your eyes-"

"TAILS! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She wailed violently, her body starting to shake.

Running as fast as he could, he picked her up, and began running, listening to her commands obediently.

* * *

Stephen sprinted down the corridors searching for Sarah. All of the turrets were activated and searching around, anything suspicious was shot at. Apparently, XT had smashed straight into the side of the base, regardless of the harm inflicted on him. Like a jumbo jet on a suicide mission, he'd obliterated three floors of their air base, and burned six more with his excess speed. Stephen had walked past the disemboweled corpses of at least six people, obviously people who had been in XT's way. Stephen still wasn't sure about two of the corpses though, it was possible it was a single person, he really couldn't tell.

"SARAH!" He shouted again, asking for the name of his beloved.

Nothing.

_First thing first, where is XT? He came for a reason, and if it was to kill us, I'd see a lot more intestines on the floor. So, logically he's heading- oh, there's Paul, dammit… poor guy…- gah! He's got to be heading somewhere… _

Stephen ran, following the carnage and it did seem to lead somewhere.

However, he didn't like the looks of it.

* * *

"Oh my God… oh my God… holy shit… holy shit…" Sarah cursed, trying to pull a half burnt citizen of their flying fortress from some rubble. The wind from the outside alone was starting to tip the now off balance sky base, and the air pressure combined with that to suck out and snuff much of the fire, but also, many people were sucked out as well.

Running across the hallway, she heard loud, staccato steps, of a metal on metal.

Glancing down the hall, she saw a metal figure, two point ears protruding up and out of its skull, wings attached to its long, wide arms. The robot was facing away from her, and marching onwards without a care.

_I'm going to kill him!_ She mentally roared, preparing to charge the monster responsible. In a supersonic leap, she thrust herself at the metal juggernaut, and was immediately smashed into the wall, mechanical arm taking a small dent.

"Nyeh…" XT snorted grumpily as he staggered towards Sarah, his feet fairly unstable for walking triple jointed as they were.

Sarah looked at the glowing green panels as it marched up to her, trying to stand and face it, it plunged a hand to her neck, grabbing tightly.

"Silly. Little. Girl." His speech was slow and hesitant, as if learning it for the first time.

"XT, you know my family!"

The robot blinked hard, and started to squeeze on her neck, slowly and assuredly.

"LET HER GO YOU METAL MONSTROSITY!" A voice demanded as a piece of debris hit XT's head.

Without his body moving an inch, XT's head swung around backwards and glared at Stephen, standing confidently in the corridor's middle.

"GRAARGH!" XT roared, dropping Sarah and using his hand to fire a bolt of hectic purple light at Stephen.

The grey blob quickly separated his stomach, and the blast went straight through him, shattering the wall on the end of the hallway. _Oh shit…_ He pulled out one of his pens, and quickly tapped the button on it, activating a laser that fired at XT's skull.

A red dot was permanently engraved on his crest as he roared and charged at Stephen. Stephen sunk into a puddle and subsequently rematerialized behind XT. After a sharp kick to the head of XT, Stephen leapt back and grabbed onto Sarah. Using the Grey Chaos Emerald tucked within himself, he silently made a prayer that his ghostlike abilities could be shared, as could his invisibility, as he and Sarah found out one random fun night.

Grabbing Sarah's hand, he pulled her through the wall with him, and they both landed in a heap on the other side. Oddly enough, they ended up in Cal's room.

"DESTROY!" XT roared, and approached the wall, then, suddenly, Stephen and Sarah heard the stomping cease.

"Mission objectives: bring base to knees…" XT pounded off, clanking his way to the destination Stephen and Sarah had just overheard.

"BRING THE BASE TO ITS KNEES?!" They both looked at each other in horror.

"Where is your dad?" Stephen asked immediately.

"I was looking for him… he was in the medical wing, but most of that was decimated upon that explosion.

"God Damn it all… XT's going to sink our fortress, and let us be destroyed by GUN..." Stephen muttered, sitting upright.

"What are we going to do?"

"There isn't anything. We can't stop him without both your father and the 7 Chaos Emeralds. But…" Stephen thought quickly, silencing himself.

"Stephen, but what?!" Sarah demanded, worried yet hopeful.

"Sarah, I need you to take me to my control room as fast as you possibly can. I need a little bit of time, and the faster you run the-"

_WHOOSH_

Both Sarah and Stephen had vanished in a gust of wind.

* * *

XT's face was blank, yet it almost appeared as if he were repressing a sinister smile. The Master Emerald and the device that converted its pure energy stood before him in a large room.

"Goodbye." He announced as he extended his left index finger.

From the top of this jagged extremity, a small, cylindrical panel rose, and positioned itself pointing towards the Master Emerald. A small beam of light from its behind sent it shooting forwards. Careening about the room, the little cylinder spun around, edging itself closer towards the device keeping the base afloat.

A few seconds later, it implanted itself onto the main engine, and began to glow from grey to red.

* * *

"Ok Sarah, thank you so much! Now," Stephen commanded as he grabbed the Chaos Emeralds, five of the six, "take this Emerald to your father, use Chaos Control if you must. Sonic has a fighting chance against GUN with a Chaos Emerald in his arsenal."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm-"

_BOOM!_

Lights and warnings flickered all over the main screen as the ground beneath them tilted, and gravity seemed to no longer affect them.

"SHIT!" Stephen absorbed all five of the Emeralds in his chest, and maneuvered upwards to his ceiling rapidly. Breaking a hole in the glass window above his studio, he escaped the falling base.

Sarah panicked the moment her feet the ground, and silently began to express that fear. _If the base falls, and we're in the air, when it crashes, we will too… right? So many people with be hurt!_

"CHAOS CONTROL!" She commanded, and around her, time slowed to a near halt.

* * *

Jumping around on the wrongly positioned walls, she made her way to the bottom to help evacuate people in danger of losing their lives.

Stephen dove down quickly, using his extreme mental capabilities to angle himself perfectly through the air as he fell. Slowly, he navigated sideways, positioning himself under the base and began to expand his joints.

His fingers spanned the bulk of the base, and his wings outstretched to cup a vast section of the bottom. He legs stretched and continued stretching for a good long while until he tapped the faintest touch of dirt or grass. Immediately, he summoned the power of the Chaos Emeralds for extra strength, and began to push, hard.

His legs flattened, giving him more stability as the base plummeted, and his fingers and wingtips scraped the hull of the fortress as the two exerted opposite forces upon the other.

"AAAAAAARGGGGH!" Stephen wailed at the pain as he felt the base push down on him. It had to have weighed over 400 tons.

Suddenly, in his mind, Stephen pictures two things. One, was of Sarah, being squashed by the internal crumpling of his Laputa. This image frightened him, and caused him to forget his pain for a moment. The second, odder than the first, was the graph of y=n^x power, or rather, the exponential graph. As long as he kept pushing, the base should respond by pushing less on him. Ultimately, he could ease it into a slow, gentle landing.

There was only one problem, there was only about 500 feet left between the base and the ground, and Stephen already felt fatigued, he'd never been stretched this far in his life.

Both he and the base groaned as the Stephen slowly became squished. Though, this concentration of muscle, combined with the glowing power of the Chaos Emeralds in his chest, allowed for more energy to be exerted on the base.

"Oh…" he moaned as the stress became too great for him.

* * *

Sarah felt the base start to slow very rapidly, quite like an elevator going down, and then abruptly stopping. Then, after a little bit, the base just dropped, the quicker drop lasted merely a moment, but in that amount, much of the base shuddered and creaked, and the bottom levels, the ones Sarah was occupying, did shrink about a foot each in height.

"What the fuck just happened?" Sarah wondered aloud.

"SARAH!" A familiar voice called out to her.

"DAD!" Sarah bolted over to her father, confined to a wheelchair and strapped into it so he'd resist temptation of ruining his already banged up leg.

"I couldn't do anything to get away! My chair was caught on something and my arms weren't strong enough to get me out of it! I swear, I'll hang Stephen. I know he meant well, but I could've died! I'll NEVER use a wheelchair again!" Sonic declared.

Sarah chuckled as she wheeled him out of the room. Slowly, the small family made their way to the exit doors.

"Stephen told me to find you, and give you this…" Sarah placed the glowing red Emerald in her father's gloved palm.

"Ah… he wants me to fight? I take it back, I won't kill him." He smiled confidently.

"Take it easy dad, ok?"

"Sarah, come now. When is 'easy' a part of me? Oh yes, the way I live life." Sonic, gripping the Emerald tightly, rose to his feet. "Ah, much better."

After taking one step, he started to lean. Sarah caught him before he fell to the ground.

"I'm ok, I'm ok. A broken leg won't keep me pinned for long." Sonic stood proudly, and took small, bold steps into the slightly crooked hallway. Carefully, the two continued through the halls.

"Dad, Stephen also told me that they're coming… XT, if you didn't guess, is behind the attack. The base is on the ground again, and in the open. GUN is going to kill us all if we can't fight back."

"Sarah, go find your mother, and tell her to rally some fighters. I don't know where Stephen is right now, but he's not helping us at the immediate moment," Sonic sighed, "I'm sure he's got his reasons, but, right now, unless told otherwise, we need an army, and we need it quick. So go."

"But dad, your leg!"

"Screw that, you can see me walk, I'm fine. Besides, I can hobble around under Chaos Control and still be faster than half of those moron GUN nerds."

Sarah smiled faintly as she nodded, and darted off to find her mother.

* * *

Omen grinned wickedly at his flagship. Flying low, and powered by an artificial Chaos Emerald, the aerial juggernaut could see the smoke from Mystic Ruins zone, presumably where the base crashed.

"Impressive… so they've been in the air this whole time… well, they're grounded now. ALL TROOPS! CLOSE IN ON THAT POSITION! WIPE OUT THESE PUTRID ANIMALS!" Omen commanded through the battle communications network.

Smugly, he sat back in his seat, no amount of narcolepsy would prevent him from watching the moment of victory for all he stood for, human peace. Slowly, the entire flagship shifted and directed itself on a downwards path, making itself closer to the ground, not more than a hundred feet away.

_CRASH_

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Omen shouted.

"There seems to be a breach in the bow, sir, we're stabilizing but-"

_CRASH_

"We very well may be going down sir," the commander stated calmly, "activate tank treads and lower propulsion mechanisms, make for a safe landing!" He dictated.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"

_CRASH_

The sound of writing metal echoed through the ship a final time as their pet robot appeared standing in front of General Omen once more. Omen glared at his found creation with anger and frustration.

"Mission complete, General. Awaiting orders."

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT!"

The robot stared blankly at Omen and his temper tantrum.

"LOOK BEHIND YOU!" The robot's head turned around, staring at the hole through all layers of the ship's hull directly to Omen.

"I am… apologetic. Awaiting orders."

"No more orders for awhile! Stand there and wait for further instruction!" He commanded.

The robot stood still as a rock, waiting, from then on out.

Omen glared through the robot as the rumbling of his base was heard clearly through the hole it had made. Slowly, he closed in on the base.

* * *

Tails had exited the base before it began falling, obeying Cosmo's commands to get her away from the burning metal, and collapsing infrastructure. Landing gently in a clearing of the forest, near where their house was, he set his wife down, and knelt next to her.

"Cosmo, are you alright?" He asked gently, despite her screaming.

"No!" She shut her eyes, concealing the green glow. "I'm hurt!" She swallowed hard and clutched the nature around her.

"I'm not going to leave you Cosmo… I promise… you'll be ok."

"Since when are you a nice guy?" She grunted, pained.

"I'm sorry, I've been a jerk…"

"Thank you." She winced, a chunk of the skin on her abdomen flaked off. Much of her body was blackened.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"There's green… underneath…" She breathed, gasping. "It will take time…"

"I'll be right here if you need anything… ok, Cosmo?" Tails sat down right next to her.

"There is something…" taking in a deep breath, she mentioned, "come closer."

Tails leaned in towards her, looking her directly into her eyes, now lightly open and shining upon his face.

In a simple, yet difficult move, Cosmo's head leapt up and stole a kiss from Tails.

Pants of relief left Cosmo's mouth.

"Is that all you wanted? I would've said yes…" Tails leaned in further and let his lips linger over hers for awhile.

"I'm not going to leave here without you… I promise…" Tails whispered to her as she left her consciousness escape her for the moment. Tails too, took this opportunity to sleep next to his glorious wife once more, making sure that he wasn't going to ever let go of her.

Finally, the couple was back together again.

* * *

Sonic crouched in a crack in the hull. Anyone Sarah and Amy had found was slightly armed, and positioned within the walls, aimed in the most likely place the army may come from. He himself, against the use of weapons and guns, was armed with bombs. Anyone who was untrained in ranged weaponry was prepared to run out and set landmines and sabotage the intruding vehicles, others, would just attack the robots, men and women attempting to get inside the base. Sonic may not have talked to Sarah or Stephen, but he figured, if they could hold out long enough, Brian and Luna may arrive, and with them, the seventh Chaos Emerald, and then, they could not only go on the offensive against GUN, but also talk XT out of his hypnotic obedience towards GUN.

So that was their goal, to fight for a chance of having a life beyond running and secrecy.

Sonic gripped the red Emerald with hope. If they beat this massive wave, they wouldn't get another one for a few weeks, giving GUN the chance to regroup and thus giving themselves the chance to get the green Emerald.

It would work. It had to.

In the distance, the rumbling of tanks and carrier trucks echoed into the ears of the rebels, and they gripped their weapons tightly, ready to face the end.

* * *

**(FYI: Junior year's a bitch for me, [and not the good kind of bitch, to all you pervs out there, this is he bitch you DON'T want in your life.])**

**More coming soon...**


	19. Sonic

**Grilfriend problems. No other explanation needed nor wanted.**

* * *

_BAM_

_BOOM_

_TSSSSSS_

_BANG_

"Oh… what a headache…" Stephen groaned as he felt the points of the five Chaos Emeralds in his chest poking him. He felt exhausted. "When did I take a nap? Wait a damn minute…" he pondered, "why can't I move my legs?"

Looking down, he realized that everything was black, as if he hadn't opened his eyes. Something was… crushing him?

_Laputa! I'm buried!_

_BANG_

_BOOM_

_POW_

"Oh no…" he sighed, "GUN must've arrived! And if they're attacking… I wasn't there to give them the orders to attack! THEY'LL ALL DIE! SARAH!"

Shrinking to a liquid, Stephen squirmed his way out of the collapsed bottom, the Chaos Emeralds being pulled behind him. The moment his head saw light, he blinked to observed what had been happening while he was unconscious.

Laputa was safe, to a degree, and it's primary weapons turrets, still fully operational, we're being utilized by Lucien and Sylvia, pushing back a GUN offensive. The place where his feet had been had pushed up two massive mountains of dirt, with the soil fine and dark and loose. Aside from that, they'd landed in a forest, with a very thick section behind them, where GUN wasn't bold enough to venture, and a lighter, now blown away section in front of them, this happened to be where GUN was stationed.

Over 500 light artillery, 1000 transport ships, and around 100 aerial units, GUN had them outnumbered, easily, 100:1. Technologically speaking, Laputa had better defenses and offenses, but they were slow, sluggish, and meant for striking down flying units which dared to get to close to the cloud around it. They were accurate to a degree, but ineffective at high altitude shots or extremely long range. GUN, however, prepared for a long ranged assault, and most of their weapons could, if a bit inaccurately, strike Laputa.

So far, Stephen was a bit worried. The slugs of Laputa were explosive after impact, he designed them to be as such, however, they did not have an unlimited amount. Maybe a thousand shots per turret, and there were seventeen of them surrounding Laputa, only 10 of which could be of use. The armor could withstand a beating, but after awhile, it would eventually be ripped apart.

By some twist of fate, someone on Stephen's side had rallied a small army, and distributed weapons and vehicles. A strikingly fast skiff was darting into enemy territory every so often, and delivering bombs, disrupting much of the artillery. A few other members of his team were scattered into the trees, hiding about, ready to strike at any assault from GUN. Apparently, however, they knew better than to attack with ground units up close, and kept their distance. A few felled robotic creations around the trees gave the hint away.

Stephen pulled himself from the hole and darted over to his precious sky base. Wedging himself inside a crack, he began running towards the central command station, his bedroom. As he bolted it down the halls, not a natural sprinter, many of the crew saluted him, smiling, hoping he'd turn the tides in this losing battle.

The moment he sat down, Lucien's and Sylvia's avatars came to him and began informing him.

"Sir, while you were out, Laputa has crashed and the forces of GUN close in on us slowly but surely. You've been out half an hour."

"Stephen! We're running out of bullets!"

"Sylvia, order out our spare meknique army, and send them on either kamikaze raids on the advancing air ships, or have them fight alongside any troops. Also, melt down our non-combat assistants into slugs for the cannons, those must not run out or we shall perish.

"Lucien, direct me to Mr. rose immediately. And give me an update on the presumed location of Brian and Luna."

"Master Stephen, our duo shan't be here in half a day. Master Sonic is presently in the upper decks of the lounge room, barking orders at the army he helped amass."

"Very good, ready my Chair." Stephen clenched the sides of the chair he was sitting in, and very rapidly, the plush leather cup zoomed off to the deck at which Sonic was in.

It took hardly ten seconds for Stephen to reach Sonic. "Sonic, give me a status report that my AI's can't!" Stephen ordered.

"Where have you been?"

"Out and about. Brief me."

"Ok, we've landed in a-"

"Sonic, I know the area, you needn't brief me on that. Where are our troops, where are theirs, who is gaining on who?"

"They're advancing everywhere, and a few of our troops have taken to the skies to fight the aerial units."

"Where is Sarah?" Stephen glared across the grassy field.

"She is fighting in trees up front, using her gun skills you taught her."

"Good. Amy?"

"Inside, tending to the wounded."

"Very good. Now, we're going to change this, I think…"

"How so?"

Stephen looked across the field, and images and battle plans raced across his mind. "It goes like this. There is a forest behind us, correct?"

"Yes."

"And there are two walls around us, correct?"

"Yes, but they can advance on us from the East. There, we are venerable."

"Ah, but you forget something. What is there goal?"

"To kill us."

"But what are they attacking?"

"Us."

"No, they're attacking our fortress, which won't move. We are the objective however, and they think we're here."

"What are you saying?"

Stephen sighed.

"What is our goal, Sonic?"

"To live."

"And how do we do that?"

"Wait for that Chaos Emerald to come to us, and have me transform and beat them out."

"Exactly. So, we need a time consuming plan that saves our asses. Plain and simple."

"Yeah, so we hold out here."

"Ok, and then what? Just hope that we can make it through the day while XT and about a third of GUN, with more on the way, coming? I don't think so… Let's go for a more… sinister approach to this. We're on defense, and we can't hold out for long… so, we'll go on the offense."

"But attack GUN upfront will surely destroy-"

"MOVE!" Stephen shoved Sonic down as a beam of energy shot past where his head was. "They have snipers… nice… What I'm telling you Sonic, is that we don't have to hide here, we can run."

"Explain," Sonic stood up, resting on the side of a wall.

"Ok, they are trying to defeat Laputa, our defense. We need this to survive, but as long as they think we're here, they will attack it. They have no use of our behind, and they dare not delve into those woods in fear of guerilla ambush. They'd rather plough over it after Laputa is finished, making sure we're gone.

So, if we were to go into the forest, our natural forte, then we can sneak around, and either pop them like a pimple, or trick them into getting too close into this valley of death. We simply need to herd them inside, and bolster our defenses on the outside."

"Ok… I see how this could work… but where do we get the portable firepower to defend against the bulk of GUN?"

Stephen smiled, and his chest expanded, revealing five Chaos Emeralds.

"All I need to do is build a device to harness the power of four of them, give one to Sarah, and the other two you, and we can power a great little ship. Four Chaos Emeralds will make for about… oh, enough energy to power super speed on a hovercraft and probably two heavily armed turrets. Then, if you want a shield, simple use a normal battery source, or take away a cannon…"

"Stephen, go to the lab, and I'll send word to Sarah immediately. Together, the three of us will pilot that around."

"No, um… I have a better idea… now, at least… but I will need your daughter. You will be leading the men and women around to sabotage with a robot that uses three, while Sarah and I distract GUN in a talent show act."

"Talent show?"

"Just trust me… Get me Sarah, pronto! And send her to the launching bay."

"Ok… captain…" Sonic uttered as he hobbled off to get a messenger quick enough to capture Sarah.

"OR BETTER YET!" Stephen declared to himself as he postulated a better idea for this plan.

* * *

Sarah was on her toes. Slugs, lasers, and bullets pelted the air around her as she ran from tree to tree. It followed a steady rhythm, this madness. She ran, she hid, she shot, she ran. Very simple, yet so dangerous she wished never to do it again. A single bullet passed through one of her quills as she unleashed another few shots towards the GUN fleet. Six others-

_BOOM_

"AAAUlgh-"

-Five others joined her in her hit and run tactics, but those five weren't enough to keep up away from the GUN firing.

"Sarah!" A voice called suddenly.

Her head turned around instinctively to find a little squirrel beckoning to her from the base. Twisting around quickly, she realized GUN was still firing at her. A bullet was hardly deflected by her metal arm, held in a primitive defensive stance.

She spun towards the base, and made her way to the squirrel boy.

"Stephen and Sonic want you Sarah. Go to the launching bay at once!" He chirped, glancing in the distance.

"WATCH OUT!" Sarah screamed, grabbing him and throwing him to the ground.

A second passed, and a loud fizzling noise was heard overhead.

"Phew… that was close," Sarah sighed, "Now you better get inside before…" Sarah looked at the head of the boy, half melted by the sniper's laser that she had attempted to defend him against.

"Those damn bastards… never shoot the messenger…" A tear fell from her eyes as she said another silent prayer for him.

"The launch bay… ok…" Jogging briskly at roughly fifty miles an hour, she made her way to the launch bay.

* * *

Stephen was screwing in the last screw as Sarah and Sonic arrived.

"Ah, Sarah." Dropping his screwdriver, he grabbed Sarah and pulled her in tightly. Whispering gently, he spoke into her ear, "I thought I'd lost you…"

"I'm not easy to lose Stephen." She assured him, breaking the hug.

"Ok, well, let's get down to business, even though I really don't want to…" Stephen let loose a puff of withdrawn air. "Sarah, I've made an interesting contraption for you to pilot."

"Stephen, you know I don't do well with ships…" Sarah cautioned.

"You run to power it Sarah, it is really just a wagon with a turret on it."

"Oh…"

"The idea is that the turret will fire at all whom it identifies with GUN, and will rotate to attack them with beams of semi-chaotic strength. Also, because I don't want you getting shot, the will be a shield around you alone."

"I'm assuming this is powered by the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Three of them, which will all be wired to their machines, while being attached to you. So, in case of emergency, all you have to do is let go of the wagon, and run like hell."

"Not bad. And what of the other three?"

"One will be in Sonic's hand, and the other two powering another wagon, that one will be more of a tank though… He and I shall control that, along with a group of willing crewmembers, and anyone else who wants to escape Laputa."

"Wait, we're running?" Sarah asked, befuddled.

"Not exactly, but yes. We're trapping them within until the seventh Chaos Emerald appears for us. Brian and Luna should see the smoke from this battle, and send it to us, giving us Super Sonic, and a chance to tear through all of them like tissue paper!" Stephen grinned. "The goal is to bide our time out whilst saving people and resources… we can't win if we're on offense without Super Sonic, and we can't hold out in defense until it comes… so, we'll make a little time consuming run."

"I think I get it…" Sarah replied as Stephen started strapping her up with the Chaos Emeralds' harness.

As Stephen fastened the last strap, he kissed Sarah warmly. "The second this is over, I promise, it will all be better, ok? Think of living together in peace, that's why we fight." Stephen's determined glance rubbed off on Sarah, and she grabbed the wagon's handles tightly.

"Good luck, if you feel you need a rest, return to base, I've heard your mother is treating the wounded."

"Ok Stephen, but," she half-heartedly laughed, "don't think I forgot your promise you made to me before this, that you'd do _almost anything_ for me."

"I haven't forgotten." He admitted.

Sarah was off in a flash, wagon right along with her. Sonic and Stephen watched her speed off with a mixed look of worry and hope.

"Well Mr. Sonic, do you want to rally the bulk of everyone else?" Stephen asked, smiling about their fool proof plan to waste time safely.

Sonic nodded, and hobbled off with his almost-son helping him walk the distance.

* * *

Omen was fairly frustrated. With XT placed under time-out, and the cannons of the enemy base still firing regardless of being brought from the sanctity of the sky, he was finding it hard to stay calm and confident of the eminent victory.

"What do we know about that machine lieutenant?" He asked a man of lesser rank in front of him.

"From our reports, that itself is the remains of Tails' Workshop, the legendary vault of the toys of that genius sir. Literally anything could be behind those walls."

"Do we know if those cannons have ammo? Or if that base has people piloting those cannons?"

"Due to the missiles' explosive nature, we are incapable of retrieving feedback from the ammunition itself. It could be energy, it could be modified cannonballs, we don't know. And judging on the accuracy, it is either an extremely skilled person, or a robot, controlling the guns."

"What do YOU think?"

"Personally… I believe that the base itself is alive, to a degree, and that from the Chaos Emeralds they've stolen from us in the past few days, they've managed to erect an electronic entity of sorts within the base, and power it."

"So the base is a giant robot?" Omen asked.

"Essentially, yes." The lieutenant replied.

"Well, it seems that it has issues attacking aerial units… please, attempt to get this flagship airborne once more."

"Our men are already on it." The man smiled.

* * *

Knuckles sighed in agitation. Whomever it was, they were going to pay. His Emerald was ok, but it was placed in serious peril. How Stephen managed to let something enter the base with enough power…

_XT-421?_ _Oh, that would not be good…_

Knuckles sighed once more. For the longest time, he had stayed put, and no one had ever gotten near him without witnessing his fury, linked to the divinity of the Master Emerald itself. Through a symbiotic relationship, the two helped each other greatly, and so long as Knuckles could live mildly like an animal, eating food drinking water, and relieving himself, then he would never need to worry about GUN at all.

The Master Emerald, so long as it was protected, was all he needed in life.

Period.

Standing the Emerald up amidst the ruins of the mechanical, energy harvesting shrine it was placed in, Knuckles once again stood I front of it, folding his arms in front of his chest. No one was going to steal the Emerald as he ate food again.

* * *

"Haha!" Sarah giggled as blaster fire and tank shells were effortlessly repelled backwards in the air away from her.

Two auras, a red and a blue, melded together around her in a bubble forming a magenta shield, impenetrable by seemingly anything. Her hands, one obviously stronger than the other, gripped the handles of the wagon she pulled. The Chaos Emeralds strapped to her back emanated a warm energy, one that both made her relax and feel energized.

The turret behind her could be heard, but not seen. She knew that every second, that thing would target something nearby and fire at it until it saw that it was destroyed. What couldn't her boyfriend build?

A heavy metal slug from one of the tanks in GUN's artillery line burst from the chaos that was ensuing over on their side. Sarah watched it as it soared to her, ready to combine with her and explode in a messy fury. Sarah smirked as the shield around her began to glow a bit brighter in the area that the bomb seemed to be aiming for. The moment the tip of the shell tapped the shield, it exploded, without the messy fury, and she only laughed.

It was all futile for GUN; aiming for her did nothing.

A few minutes of this constant barrage, officially 10 minutes at 13 seconds, it seemed that Sarah's luck ran out. A lone rocket, poorly aimed for Sarah herself, managed to lock in on her wagon, not her.

Whether GUN was catching on to the fact that she was wasting their ammunition or that GUN was just plain lucky was not a question Sarah asked herself. All she knew was that somehow, someone blew up her wagon, and thus, severed her from her weapons.

_Clink!_

The little cord that had once connected her harness of Chaos Emeralds had retracted and clicked back into place, leaving the shield at full power.

Rather than risking another freak shot that might be able to hurt her, Sarah retreated, praying that she had bought enough time for her dad and boyfriend.

_Actually… maybe now would be a good time to use that radio…_ Sarah thought as sped back to base, heading straight for her mother in the medical wing. Amy had been entrusted with the radio transmitter, the one link to Sonic and Stephen.

The moment she set foot in the medical wing, she nabbed the radio and contacted Stephen immediately.

"Sarah? What's wrong?" Stephen spoke into the radio quickly, worried for his precious girlfriend.

"Oh nothing Stephen, I just hope I bought enough time for you. They broke the wagon."

"They did? Already? Dang… We're about five minutes out from our ideal positioning, so… I don't know… hold on…" Stephen strained his mind for a plan. "Ok, Sarah, I'll get back to you if I need you to do anything… until such time, don't get hurt, and start recalling the troops in the front, ok? We want to pull them closer to Laputa. I love you. Stephen out."

Stephen massaged his temples as his face fell. This was too much to handle in one day.

"What's wrong Stephen?" Sonic asked.

"Not much, dad, I'm just pooped."

"I'm not your father yet. Think though, if you manage to get through this, you'll be a hero."

"I already am a hero Sonic."

"More a hero, the kind that get the women." He chuckled.

"I've got one, and that's more than enough for me."

"As do I… So, I take it after the war…"

"Am I allowed to? I mean… you are her father… you can say no."

"I've told you before Stephen. I know that if there is anyone in the world left to make my daughter happy, it is you, a freaky, biological experiment designed to kill me." He laughed, "furthermore, whether you like it or not, grandchildren would be very nice…"

"Even if they're tougher than you?"

"Hmm…" Sonic thought inwardly.

"Don't worry… I've been doing the math in my spare time… I don't think they'll be much more than super fast… I'm pretty sure any grandkids of yours won't have my super powers."

"That's kind of sad… when you die, you won't have much to pass on." Sonic noted for him.

"Yeah… but, I don't die, so, yeah." Stephen smirked and leaned back in their small tank.

"Where did you go?"

"Oh, you know… around. Basically… I saved all of your asses, and you didn't say much to me, as usual."

Sonic cocked an eyebrow, this lightening of the mood was well needed.

"Ok, it goes like this. I flew out the window before Laputa hit the ground, and I stretched out, using my feet on the ground, fingers, arms and wings on the bottom of Laputa, and pushed like I was pregnant. And I tell you now with the utmost honesty, you are lucky you're not a girl."

Sonic burst out laughing, as did Stephen and a few other guys in the small cabin.

"But I am serious. I did push Laputa up like some deranged titan. Each Chaos Emerald empowers me, so with 5 in my chest, I was capable of a lot. That is how those mounds of dirt appeared, those were my feet. I was squished for about an hour, I think… I don't really remember at this point…"

"Impressive… I've only stopped hurtling space stations from colliding with Earth… I could only do that in my Super form though… not as Sonic…"

"Shit happens," Stephen laughed.

"So, we almost there?"

"Almost… a few more minutes…" Stephen sighed as he watched the screen, his mobile tank slinking around the trees fairly quickly.

* * *

Omen stood up suddenly. Report had come that his flagship was fixed, and thus, his pet alien was to be unleashed.

"You, metal alien, up." He ordered angrily. For a creature that caused much destruction, it wasn't very biased in the destruction causing.

The metal automaton rose to its feet and looked at the General.

"Follow me." Omen barked, storming off through the halls and corridors. The alien clanged its feet the whole way down to the prison.

As they appeared in the prison cells, Omen noted a strange noise.

"Daisy…" The moan came once more.

_That broken, mental faggot of a furry… Richard…_

Long ago, Richard had paid off GUN and Damian to spare his life with his parents funds. However, by keeping him alive, they milk his bank account, keeping him just barely alive. He probably only had one meal a day, and that was if he was lucky. All day, every day, he only seemed to moan out the name Daisy.

Sure, Omen knew why, when he was a little kid it was on every station, he was a rapist, and a psychotic one at that. He raped, kidnapped, molested, and assaulted, Daisy Prower, daughter of Cosmo and Tails, two of the beings unaccounted for in the eradication of animals.

Even now, along the path to an alternate exit on the ship, Omen managed to catch a sick glimpse of Richard playing with himself, deluded in his own mind, thinking Daisy was on top of him no doubt.

"Get rid of this filth." Omen declared on a whim, they'd steal his money anyways; no one needed to care about an animal.

The robot looked at Richard, and lifted a finger up. From this, black, syrupy liquid spewed into the jail cell, covering the cat and cell. When his finger closed, the robot's wrist flicked, and a small red ember was clutched within its clawed grip. Gently tossing the red ball into the cell, he turned around, and began to walk.

The moment the red glow hit the floor, covered in slick black liquid, the whole cell became an inferno, torching all that was contained within it.

"DAISY!" Richard screamed as the fire cleansed his vision, burning Daisy out of existence, and his own fur and skin.

Omen watched in fear and pleasure at the power his pet possessed.

"There is your door. Exit and enter only through this hole." Omen declared, pointing at a small hole in the wall.

The robot nodded as it approached the hole.

"Orders?"

"Disable those turrets, or distract them until we can fire upon them, we are taking this base now."

The robot slid through the hole and rocketed over to the frontlines, ready to take on the turrets of the rebel base.

* * *

Sylvia peered through Turret Nine's locking system and began to panic virtually.

"BROTHER!!! THAT METAL MAN IS WALKING TOWARDS US!" She wailed in text to her brother.

"Sylvia, manners, please." Lucien demanded sternly, focusing fire with his array, Turret's 10-17 and 1.

"BUT LUCIEN! YOU DUMMY! IT IS THAT BIG METAL GUY WHO SHUNK OUR SHIP!" She cried out in outrage and fear.

"Let me see- oh dear… My little sister, focus all fire on that being, we'll show him not to mess with the Laputan Defense Array." Lucien responded snootily as he began to target XT.

"AHAHAHAHA!" Sylvia cackled maniacally as she fired slug after slug at the robot approaching her.

"Mission objective: Distract or destroy primary weapons system of rebel base." XT mumbled as he eyed the Turrets down mid stride.

He was in the middle of a barren wasteland, comprised of dirt and sand. Each step he took opened him up to be assaulted. Looking up, a good 400 yards or so, the Turrets of Laputa took a lock on him, all of their gleaming metal flickered simultaneously as they stared at him menacingly. Unflinching, he stopped moving and waited.

_BOOM_

_BOOM_

_BOOM BOOM_

_BOOM BOOM BOOM!_

Time slowed to a stop for the metal juggernaut.

Seven Turrets fired upon him, and four more were about to be launched. He watched the first one come in, analyzing the path of trajectory, and waiting for the perfect moment. Raising his fists in a battle stance, the shell approached him at terminal velocity. The moment the bullet came in range, XT threw his fist at it, denting the shell horribly. The impact caused minor damages to the skin protect his innards, so XT came up with a better plan for the second one.

A moment later, the next bullet approached, traveling once again at terminal velocity, yet slowed down for the alien. Though his movements were slow, his nexus of processing piled in all of the information so rapidly, that every fraction of a second was accounted for. No movement was wasted.

Stepping to the side, the bullet plunged into the sandy soil, never to be seen again. XT glanced up at the other two incoming bullets and smirked menacingly. Jumping up lightly, his talons on each foot grasped them, and redirected them backwards at their source. With a well timed flip, the bullets were sent rocketing back with lethal accuracy to the Turrets from which they were launched, and imploded with them, disabling two of the 11 assaulting guns.

The next three bullets XT dodged, dancing away from two, and slashing the other one with a talon of his. This left four bullets before the next wave came, which was to be about 1.12 seconds, an eternity for this robot.

Growling gruesomely, a thick, green smog proliferated from his throat, and with a single roar, the small cloud was enough to completely disintegrate the encroaching bullets.

_BOOM_

_BOOM BOOM_

_BOOM BOOM BOOM_

_BOOM BOOM BOOM_

The next round advanced, two less Turrets functioning.

XT tried not to laugh.

* * *

Sonic and Stephen had GUN in their sights, and they were advancing into the valley as XT distracted the Turrets, it worked perfectly.

"OPEN FIRE!" Stephen declared, his small amount of troops began unleashing a volley of laser fire at the nearest GUN ship.

With a small, fast tank, and at least 20 laser wielding soldiers, the ship fell very fast. And with the element of surprise, the next three fell fairly quickly as well. However, once that faded, GUN recollected its bearings, and starting to assault the stationary tank. Then, it began to move, and move pretty fast.

"Ok guys, if you want, you can jump ship, but be warned, I cannot protect you once you do. If you stay here, you will be shot at, but, we'll move fast, avoiding most of it. If you stay, you must be a fast, good shot. All you have to do is blink and fire, ok?"

"Yes Stephen sir!" Many replied, making the grey creation smile.

Stephen piloted the tank deftly and swiftly as it darted around. It was fast, and powerful, it had no shields, but that didn't matter to Stephen. The few men and women in the tank shot valiantly as Stephen got up close and personal with GUN's ships, picking them off, one by one.

Sonic, on the other hand, had jumped ship, using his Chaos Emerald to move around quickly and help the remaining fighters on the ground fight back in a mostly stationary, yet shielded position. Grabbing a package of satchel charges, the only way he could actually attack, he began warping over to the tanks and carrier units of GUN, hoping that they'd do some damage, and injure the ships and men piloting them.

As he did this, the fighters behind him either charged up, or fought the GUN soldiers pouring out of the carrier ships like ants from an anthill. However, these soldiers were not mechanical, they were human. Few anthropomorphic animals had ever killed humans, on their robotic lackeys.

Once fired upon, it made little difference if they were human or robot. Kill or be killed, that was the law of war and nature, and none of them wanted to be killed.

As Sonic darted from ship to ship, packing enough bombs on each to at least blow some fairly decent holes into them, he heard an odd noise; an odd, old, familiar noise.

"SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! YOU WILL PERISH!"

Damian Robotnik had appeared with a legion of robots, enough to stomp out the last pocket of anthropomorphic life on the planet of Mobius.

"Oh no…" Sonic mouthed. "STEPHEN! INCOMING!"

The pod shaped, or rather, egg shaped, robots stormed in, either weaponless of heavily armed, they were dangerous either way. Sonic used his Chaos Emerald, trying not to put too much pressure on his healing leg.

Sonic singlehandedly managed to push back most of the oncoming robots from Damian, but he was getting very tired from this, and wasn't sure if he could keep it up.

Meanwhile, Stephen was struggling with the sky. One blast from them had come too close, and had tipped the tanks on its side for a brief moment. It recovered, but it wouldn't if it were to happen a second time.

"Listen guys… if that happens again…"

"Jump ship, we know." One of them responded.

"Thanks… and if you don't manage… it has been an honor, right?"

"The best."

Stephen had one idea left, and he tapped his radio for it.

"Sarah?" He asked gently.

"Yeah?" the radio cackled.

"Is there any chance there is a few robots left in my half of the workshop? Particularly-"

_BOOM!_

A single blast from the air smashed into the tank, flipping it sideways towards a GUN artillery unit.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Stephen roared to what was left of his troops.

Obediently, they obeyed.

* * *

Sarah was panicked now. She had just been talking to Stephen, and then a loud band later, he was only static.

"Sarah, he'll be-" _WHOOSH_ "Fine. Oh damn it… SARAH!" Amy called back to her speedy daughter, but it was already too late, she was already speeding across the barren no-man's-land.

Omen was pissed off now. His robot was doing its job, that was good, but it was almost as if the rebels planned this, and waited to strike at them from behind. Not to mention that Damian had arrived to save his butt, and flatten the rest of the insurgents as they tried to destroy Omen's fleet.

What annoyed him the most though, was that Sonic the Hedgehog, and Damian's ULv2.0 was leading the surprise attack.

"Get. Me. The. Megaphone." He growled to his men, immediately a speaker was handed to him.

"THIS IS THE GENERAL SPEAKING!" He hoped to attract the attention of the robot up front, "YOU ARE TO KILL SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, ROBOT!"

* * *

"To kill Sonic the Hedgehog… robot…" XT muttered mindlessly, looking at the flagship. A single shell approached him from behind, but he quickly evaded it, and marched away.

His eyes focusing like camera lenses, he scanned the area for the indigenous Blue Icon, trying to locate him amidst the chaos. The moment he was targeted, he smiled, and lurched into a burst of speed, trying to nab him from the waves of robots.

* * *

Stephen rushed over to the general area of Sonic. Damian's troops were here, and Stephen had to stop them, which he knew he probably could. Two Emeralds in chest, his reaction time was off the charts. Slipping his limbs into multiples of 3, he pulled out his magical pens, and raised a bladed arm in defiance to the metal minions strewn about the land in front of him.

"To the death ye swabs!" And out came a valiant display of lethal light to an army of robots.

* * *

"Kill Sonic-" _Oh no! That's me!_ Sonic thought worriedly.

_I'm just going to start warping away, causing some havoc in the process!_ Sonic darted off with his Emerald. While it looked as if he were moving ultra fast, in reality, he was hardly hobbling, his foot still hurt very badly.

Thrashing at robots from Damian, he saw him. XT was charging through the hulls of downed ships to obliterate his target. Sonic gulped as he started working towards Damian, maybe the death of an elite officer would call off this killer. _C'mon Brian! Where are you?!_

"GRAAARGH!" XT roared as he burst through the last ship and began to survey the area for Sonic.

He saw the Blue Blur ducking underneath a crowd of robots under the influence of Chaos Control, zooming around the crowd at crazy speeds. XT jumped down from the elevation of the ship, and plowed through the sea of robots that Damian had summoned, destroying them all on his march to Sonic.

Sonic managed to stay away from him for at least a minute, but by this point, XT was getting frustrated of trudging through the robotic carcasses, and was busting them all up as we went. In an act of anger and frustration, XT unleashed a small array of projectiles, all of which disintegrated their targets. However, he didn't target Sonic, he targets Damian's robots.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU INFERNAL MACHINE!? THOSE ARE MY ROBOTS!" Damian's flagship stormed forwards, along with his small floating chair from which he commanded his half of the army.

XT disregarded the question. Instead, he focused on the hedgehog on the ground in front of him, one leg obviously twisted from running too much.

"Don't you touch him!" A surge of heat from behind made the juggernaut blink.

Another step forwards, and another blast of energy was felt.

"Foolish little girl." XT uttered. "You hit me before. Never. Again." XT stomped towards Sarah, hand outstretched for her, but she bolted away, too quick for the angry robot.

XT glared at her as she stood away from him, glowering at him as well.

"No matter." He monotonically bellowed, taking steps towards Sonic.

Sonic stood to face his oncoming foe, slow, and steady, making sure not to miss a moment of it.

"I'm not going anywhere, boltface!" Sonic jumped towards XT with his one good foot outstretched.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." XT attempted to chuckle. With a single hand, XT grabbed Sonic's foot, and threw him down. The sound of an old back being thrown out of place could be heard from the lump of flesh.

"DON'T HURT MY DAD!" Sarah demanded, charging XT with hatred. In another lunge, she too was grabbed. Her metal arm was squeezed tightly by XT until it was crumpled into a nub again, completely unsalvageable. The moment her arm was gone, XT threw her down at the ground as well, a little far away from her father, she lay, beaten.

Proudly, XT walked over to his job, the fallen hedgehog, Sonic. Grabbing him by the neck, he lift him up high, for all the world to see.

"Mission: Kill Sonic the Hedgehog." He spoke to his face.

"Then kill me, I'll die a hero for a cause you bucket of scrap!"

XT raised his hand, and a green glow appeared in his clutch.

"With pleasure."

"Do you even hear yourself XT? What've they done to you? Who told you to do this?"

"My General. Of course. I am only to obey the General of the Rinocian Army. Now, rodent, taste-"

_BZZZT_

Sarah looked up at the last minute, seeing the red beam of energy pierce her father's skull. The body of Sonic the hedgehog dangled limply in the grasp of XT-421. XT however, was very puzzled, he had not shot.

Sarah and XT both followed the trail of red light to its source, a pistol from the hand of Damian Robotnik.

"I did it…" He mumbled. "I did it." His eyes grew wide at the realization. "I DID IT! I KILLED SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! MUHOHOHOHOHO!" He giggled gleefully. "I killed Sonic the Hedgehog!"

* * *

Omen himself, not more than 100 yards away from the scene, looked at pride with the scene, Sonic was dead, and the morale of the rebels obviously shattered. Winning would only be easier from this point onwards.

* * *

XT looked into the eyes of the dead Sonic, watching them roll back into his head with supreme puzzlement.

_Mission objectives: Kill Sonic the Hedgehog. Status report: Sonic the hedgehog dead. Mission not yet complete. Must kill Sonic the Hedgehog. Error. Sonic the Hedgehog is dead. If Sonic is dead, should mission be abandoned? Affirmative or Negative? Negative. Mission must be competed. Mission error, I did not kill Sonic the Hedgehog. Analysis: If subject B kills subject A, subject B is greater than Subject A. If B is less than A, and if A is the best, and is A is killed by B, then B becomes the best. Synopsis: subject Fat Man surpasses subject Sonic in ranking. New target acquired, subject Fat Man. New Mission objectives: Destroy Fat Man._

Blinking angrily, XT threw the carcass of Sonic the Hedgehog down on the ground, filing these thoughts into action slowly and assuredly. He took some time to recheck his logic, assuring that it was the best choice of action.

Sarah looked down at her father, now dead beneath her feet. No tears came yet, the shock hadn't yet settled in.

"D-dad…"

Stephen, from across the way, saw Sarah over the lump of flesh and fur that was Sonic, and ran to her.

The moment he saw the deadness and the wound, Stephen gasped.

"Dad. Wake up. Please? Dad. Dad… DAD!" Sarah's eyes began pouring water rapidly, and her one fist wide them away.

Suddenly, that hand over her eye became a fist, and she pulled it down to her side. Glaring at the man in the floating chair, dancing happily at his "victory."

"You… you killed him… you fat bastard of a man! Worthless slime…" Her anger and hatred poured from her like sweat and steam.

Stephen felt a pulling from within his chest as he noted the darkening of the sky.

One by one, a small lights from across the battlefield shone brightly in the darker atmosphere. The harness around Sarah seemingly magically melted off, leaving the Chaos Emeralds contained within to fall to the ground. Before, however, they fell, they seemed to be thrown into orbit around her.

The tugging in Stephen's chest finally budged out as the two Chaos Emeralds within him were thrown into orbit around Sarah's head as well.

Her father's Emerald too began to shine brightly and swirl around her. And then, by some twist of fate, a seventh gleaming appeared. From within Omen's flagship, the false Emerald gleamed a bright green, and lurched from its socket and towards Sarah.

Faster and faster they spun, until they became a single band of white light around her.

"YOU KILLED MY FATHER YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Sarah roared, the Emeralds seeping into her skin.

Stephen wasn't sure what to expect. Never before had the very concept of another super form been thought up by him, let alone it belonging it his girlfriend. But, when her fur deepened in hue, becoming a dark, dark indigo, he knew something wasn't right. Sarah's pupils vanished, alarming him further.

"Sarah?" He whispered, obviously too quietly.

As Sarah began to float upwards from the ground, a bright purple spark enveloped her metal arm, burning it off to the skin again. The spark gradually grew with her elevation, and eventually had become a hand again, purely made out of Chaos Energy.

"I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!" She cried out in agony, pain, and fury. Her voice was hardly her own, however. It was demonic, split, and filled with discord.

A black aura slowly began to encase her as she rose up, and Stephen feared that she wouldn't be helping them much.

* * *

In a final moment of deliberation, XT, oblivious to Sarah's super form, put on a cross face. Picking up a pebble, he threw it towards Damian's little pod, and then a second one in the air beneath it.

From there, he charged. The first projectile smacked into Damian's hovering system, causing the ship to wobble downwards until it was hit by the second bullet, which caused the pod to capsize, spilling the unfastened contents to the dry slab of rock 12 feet below.

At this point, XT was already in the air, ready to deliver a kick to said rock slab. With a thundering crack, the slab shot upwards, throwing Damian Robotnik to the side of another ship with a thud.

Bleeding excessively, XT grabbed his neck and breathed.

"Target Acquired. Terminating." XT grasped the skull of Damian and squeezed until all that was left was pulpy flesh and blood. Throwing him to the ground, he stomped once on his fat belly, removing the innards of the man that they once inhabited.

Dutifully, XT turned and retreated to his master.

* * *

Sarah, on the other hand, had only just begun. A nearly black blur of energy and hatred, Sarah fumed over to Damian's corpse and beat the form out of him, there was truly nothing left after she was done. Punch after punch, profanity after profanity, she defiled the dead like no one had done so before.

When she was finished, she then flew up into the sky, and skydived anything that moved. Every ship that once belonged to Gun was about to be destroyed.

Omen was angry with XT, but it could wait. His ship had little to no power left, and there was a rampaging rebel juggernaut on the loose. Omen's first line of thought was to turn and run, and that is what he intended to do.

"Get this ship up and running at all costs, and get me the fuck out of here! That thing will ruin us!"

"Yes sir, immediately sir!" The workforce replied and the lights came back on, and the ship began to move steadily backwards through the air.

* * *

Airship after airship fell to the might of Sarah's rage. She simply plowed through them, crushing their insides, murdering the men and women at the control panels, and exiting with an explosive force. Tanks fell prone to a similar fate, leaving nothing but smoke and blood behind them. Sarah even decimated the human armies assaulting the anthropomorphic creatures on her side, howling as she went.

Sarah finally came back to the dead body of Damian Robotnik, after the field was full of debris, the entire remaining army of GUN in retreat. Throwing punches with both arms at Damian, she cussed and cursed like she'd never done before.

"You fat son of a bitch! YOU FUCKING TOOK MY FATHER AWAY! DIE! ROT IN HELL! BURN WITH YOUR FATHER AND THE OTHER DEVILS INVOLVED WITH THIS! DIE!!!"

It kept going as Sarah's body threw punch after punch to the already indistinguishable mass of bloody flesh, finally, Stephen caught up to her.

"Sarah!" She didn't respond, only punching the mass of flesh angrily in fury.

"Sarah!" Stephen called again, approaching her from behind. "Stop this instant!" The moment he laid a hand on her, things began to happen.

Sarah spun around at a blurring speed, howled, and then lunged at Stephen, throwing the electrified punches at him. Stephen dodged artfully, and found his way behind Sarah. Wrapping his body around her, he attempted to pin her down.

Sarah howled in anger, and tried to pull him off her back, which only caused him to wrap in a different way, even tighter this time.

A few seconds later, Sarah's limbs were outstretched and Stephen's head was next to her.

"Sarah…" He spoke gently to her face. "Sarah…"

The pupils in Sarah's eyes began to reappear, and the energy arm diminished. Her deep breathing began to quaver as she looked into Stephen's eyes. The aura began to disperse, and with it, the fur around her began to change. The seven Chaos Emeralds fell from underneath her, all plopping to the ground, the green one disintegrating before it touched the soil.

"Stephen…" her eyes began to water.

"Oh Sarah… I'm so sorry…" Stephen unloosened her, and gave her a big hug, gently swaying in the wind.

"My dad… Stephen… he's…"

"I know." Stephen whispered.

"And all of those people I kill-" She whimpered.

"I know," Stephen pulled her in closer and let loose a deep breath. "I'm glad you're back… now… just breath… let it all out."

And Sarah began sobbing.

* * *

**Yep. That was not the end. There is yet another climax.**


	20. Recovering

Brian threw the thruster into the maximum speed forwards, despite the moaning metal around him, begging to stop or slowdown. Luna was sick, she needed a doctor, and more importantly, Sonic needed that 7th emerald before he could focus into his Super Form. Time was of the essence.

_All I need to do is meet them at the rendezvous point and… oh… no…_

Brian saw smoke puffing out from an unnatural valley, and the smallest speck of a tower from the middle of it. The worst part was it was right over the place they were supposed to have met, it was the rendezvous point.

Slowing the air speedster down to a safer collision speed, he veered the light craft downwards, towards the plains in front of the place he spent almost all of his adolescent years. Only then did the horror come to him.

Laputa was in shambles. Only one Turret remained untouched, the rest were all either melted or twisted to the point of nonuse. Crack throughout the vast fortress revealed much of what was going on inside the build, a room and a half in. No door was present, but he was sure someone would help him out.

That is, if anyone was still alive.

Opening the small sleeping bag he stood Luna up, removed the Chaos Emerald into his pocket, and hoisted the naked, sick wolf over his shoulder. From then on, he attempted to ignore the burned and mutilated bodies as he searched for an entrance to Laputa.

* * *

"I'd do anything to get him back… anything… please God… please? I didn't do anything wrong… did I? I'll never have sex, I'll be a nun, I'll devote my life… just GIVE HIM BACK!"

She had been at this for hours. Stephen sighed hopelessly as he sat outside her door, waiting for her to stop bargaining aspects of her life to a God he wasn't sure existed or not. Sarah was confident that, if she gave enough up, her dad would come back to life.

Stephen knew this to be illogical, but the very factor of Sonic dying would kill a part of Sarah for a long time, and this he had come to accept. Judging on a small, estimated timeline, basing the average time someone goes through a loss like this, and factoring in what he knew about Sarah, at some point tomorrow or tonight, Sarah would pass through this phase, and into the deep, depressing phase in which he was sure she'd attempt suicide once more. At that point, he was going to keep a close eye on her.

"Why… daddy? Why'd you die? And why God, did you take him from me?" Sarah moaned from her room.

A buzzing in Stephen's head, the radio transmitter between his two AI's and himself, began to take form into words. "Stephen, there are injured people in ever lower sector, our fatalities reach 38 percent! They need your medical expertise!"

Tapping his ear, Stephen spoke softly, "leave that to Amy, there is a girl in here that needs more than an operation to get better, and I am the only cure for her."

"And what shall we do about the broken sections of the walls?" Lucien asked next.

Stephen just clicked it off, terminating any communications with his robots, leaving them to fend for themselves. Sighing, he pressed his back up against the door, waiting for his girlfriend to let him in again.

* * *

Brian charged into the building with Luna in his arms, and the Chaos Emerald held high.

"Yes…" He whispered as he heard the sound of people, "I'M HERE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" He cried out to the group that had been hiding beyond sight, closer to the center of the base.

Heads turned as Brian burst from the doorway, green gem gleaming its glorious glow, and Luna, in all her glory, sickly using him for support. Nearly immediately, someone had a stretcher for Luna, and rushed her off.

"What's wrong with her?" The young, inexperienced doctor asked.

"No clue… she developed that in the jungle, and has been unconscious since we towered the… never mind! We have to get this to Stephen and Sonic PRONTO! I don't know what's happened, but if XT were to come now, we wouldn't stand a chance without this in Sonic's hands!" Brian declared.

"Go talk to Stephen," the doctor's eye began watering up, the little teenager wasn't in the mood to talk about the situation, "he's outside Sarah's room."

"Understood."

Brian sprinted as fast as he could to Sarah's room, hoping desperately that he'd make it in time. As far as he knew, XT was on his way.

* * *

The moment Stephen felt the presence of the seventh Chaos Emerald, he perked up and stood at attention. Brian came barreling down the hall, breathing heavily, holding it above himself.

"Brian!" Stephen grabbed the plant fox and gave him a big, sudden hug.

"Get this to Sonic now!" Brian demanded, pushing the Emerald towards him.

"DAD!!" A wail came from Sarah's room, and sobbing followed shortly in suit.

"Wha-"

"Walk with me, we've much to discuss…" Stephen guided Brian away from Sarah's room with his hands on Brian's shoulders.

"What the hell is going on here Stephen?"

"All in good ti-"

"NO DAMNIT! I WANT TO KNOW NOW!" Brian yelled, stress levels way too high. "I have traveled like, so fricking far on foot it is ridiculous, was chased down by GUN agents, climbed a mountain, scoured some plains, traversed a forest, and soared threw the skies, all to get you this damn thing. I put myself at risk, as well as the entire animal population of Mobius, and I want to know!"

"Fine, ok?" Stephen glanced over his shoulder at the room a couple yards back, too far to hear across. "Early this morning, XT brought the bulk of the GUN armed forces to our front door, and knocked it down. So many people have been killed, it is sickening. We held them off as long as we could, praying that we'd hold off until this happened, which we have. However, it is all for naught. Now, we may have the seven Chaos Emeralds, but we have no one to use them. Sonic is dead, Brian," the commander's voice was hardly above a whisper.

"No…" Brian dropped the Emerald and fell to his knees, feeling shame in his futile efforts, now he had gotten Luna sick for nothing. "How long do we have until they're gone?"

"The results are still pending… they now know where we are… but, after the pain we put them through, they will likely wait until they've bolstered their forces so they can really kill us."

"They can now…"

"Not that they know… GUN is foolish and ignorant to our differences. They saw Sarah, and saw her as a weapon. She went into a dark super mode… killing a few of our members, almost all of the human GUN soldiers on the ground, and just about every machine in her path, except for a fleeing XT and Omen… They are afraid of us for now…"

"Ok…" Brian sighed as he stayed at his knees, "I'll try to think about this all later… that's… Sonic's dead?! God… no no no no no!" He moaned helplessly, "you said a lot of people were dead…" Brian looked up at Stephen, "are my mom and dad-"

Almost mechanically, Stephen answered, "Tails and Cosmo have not been found."

Brian fell lower, onto his hands and knees, droplets of water splashing onto the tile floor. "They cannot be dead…" He muttered, trying to stand back up.

In a mere moment, he began tumbling down again, his legs gave way.

"Whoa there, let's get you fed, it looks like you haven't eaten in three days!"

"Well, we had half the food we packed which wasn't enough to begin with; Luna lost her backpack… I kept her fed, and used the last of our food yesterday to keep her belly fully, hoping that it may help her chances of survival, she also happened to have gotten very sick."

"Ah… she seems like quite a handful… how bad is she?"

"Unresponsive…"

"Shit…" Stephen closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, sinking into it slightly. "This day is only getting worse and worse… Go to the cafeteria; try to scrounge up some food for yourself. After that, go to Luna, she'll need your help, I'm sure."

"Yes Stephen, sounds great." Brian moaned as he sluggishly staggered off.

Stephen rapped gently on the door, behind the two of them, and a bleary eyed hedgehog opened the door.

"Hi Stephen…" She sniffled trying to smile for him.

"Come here." He hugged her tightly, letting the warm tears of hers trickle down his back.

"I killed all of those people Stephen… all of those innocent people… they only thought I was their enemy because they were told so… they could've lived… I shouldn't have… killed them… now there will be little girls at home with their daddies missing as well… I am no better than Damian…" She sobbed.

"Sarah… what you did, you could not control, nor prevent. You transformed into a being of extreme power, and then it controlled you through your emotions… Your dad…"

Sarah began sobbing, and Stephen let her loose and kissed her.

"I'll stop. You need some time alone, don't you?"

"I know I'll get him back… Dad can't be dead…" Sarah muttered.

Stephen nodded, and led her to her bed. After laying her down, he kissed her again, and fled the room slowly. He then proceeded to the medical rooms to work on some of the wounded there.

* * *

Amy looked at Luna inquisitively. She quickly drew her blood with a clean syringe, hoping to get her blood work done. The moment this was accomplished, they could treat her for any bug bites, infections, or diseases. But, until then, Luna breathed through a tube shoved into her lungs, unconscious and unhealthy.

"How's she doing?" An oddly warm voice spoke.

Amy turned to see Stephen in his natural form, a child, looking up at her.

"Not too good… I don't know what's goind wrong with her…" Amy's sore eyes blinked twice before continuing, "It had really been bothering me."

Stephen rose to her height and looked at her with near pity in his eyes. Slowly, he thought up some words of comfort.

"Amy… take a break… you need to let it out rather than ignore it."

"My… My Sonniku…" She whimpered, hugging Stephen, his physical body seeming to grow to accompany her crying form.

"I'm so sorry Ms. Rose… I wish there was something I could do. The most I can do is let you relax, and mourn about it. It will take some time for that wound to heal, and it will, but you need to sort out your thoughts first, ok?"

Amy nodded, taking advice from this kid genius. She slowly walked away.

"And take a shower Amy, you never know what people's blood may contain…" He cautioned as she trudged off.

Stephen watched over other patients as he waited the results of Luna's blood.

Stephen had seen it all before, and it made him sick to his stomach, if in fact he actually had one. Bullet wounds, laser piercings, scalp shots, gut shots, shrapnel lacerations, just about any atrocity GUN could dish out, Stephen had seen, and helped treat. However, the worst of the worst was trying to let someone know their condition.

He knew, deep down, it was rude to just plain out state: "you're going to die within the hour." But he had to tell them the truth, it was only fair.

One such patient cried silently as Stephen told him he could do very little to fix the side of his chest that was ripped off; the medical team on board just didn't have the materials.

"Do you want me to get any family members you may have to say goodbye? Or would you rather them not here, and spare them the grief of watching?" Stephen asked, feeling completely responsible for the young boy's death. He was merely older than Stephen claimed to be.

"I'd like… like them here, please." He managed to get out.

"Very well… as you wish. At the very least, I can make your death a little less painful, if you want… we have a bit of morphine for such occasions… Would you rather, I hate sounding like a robot… do you want to go out clean? Or easily?"

"Easy, please… I've done worse." He tried to laugh, but blood just surged from the wound on his side, not helping the situation.

Stephen nodded silently, trying not to tremble.

"Lucien, could you call down the family members of a Matthew the Cat?" He waited as Lucien appeared on the little data pad in his hand.

"Yes sir, right away sir. May I ask the occasion?"

"Not this time." Stephe redirected his gaze to Matthew. "Do you want to tell them?"

"I'd prefer this, yes." He whispered.

"Do you mind if I leave then? I'll get the morphine out as soon as I can."

"Yes please."

Stephen humbly walked away to the stash of drugs they kept hidden. He, and only a select group of others had access to this room, and he kept it that way. With a small dosage of morphine ready, only enough to last the boy an hour and a half, Stephen returned to him. The family was around his crying.

"Mom, relax. I died for a cause… right?" He asked.

Stephen nodded, "the most noble I can think of… dying for the right of a people to live, especially your family." He hooked up the drugs to a IV, and let them seep into the boy's body.

Immediately, it was like he could get up and walk again. The drugs worked wonders, always.

"How could you let this happen to our son?" The mother demanded as she glared at Stephen.

"Now honey…" The husband began to counter, still a bit shaken up.

"Don't honey me! This kid took the life of our son! How could he be so important as to order that death?"

"Ma'am, with all due respect," Stephen started mechanically, "I am not one of you. I am not an animal, I am just not human. I fight for a single purpose, the same that your son Matthew fights for, justice and equality. For a future in which humans and animal kind live together peacefully, and without such hatred. He is dying for that right now, and with him, a bit of me dies as well. I am responsible.

"Furthermore… my rank is only justified by my ability to lead you all in secrecy. I, and basically I alone, piloted the ship that kept us airborne for, what, four years now? I built it with the help of Tails, the likes of which has disappeared, leaving me in absolute command, and I guided it into the sky. And I built just about everything everyone needed to survive, all because I like that Sarah girl. No if you'll excuse me, I also have to save other people's lives… those who can be saved, can fight again another day, or at least, live."

Stephen silently walked away, holding his PDA with the lives and statuses of all of the crewmembers on it. Glumly, he placed a red x through Matthew's name.

He returned to Luna's blood, quickly being analyzed by the machine. Slowly, it churned within it, sloshing around as the machine spun, probing the small sample.

It only took a glance for Stephen to identify a major problem. Now quite panicked, he rapidly summoned Sylvia to his aid, and he marched objectively to the unconscious body of Luna. He pulled her stretcher away out of the sick bay in a wild hurry, and brought her to another room, far away from the other people. Upon closing the door, he left a large, yellow triangle on the door, alerting everyone to be caution about what went into the room.

"How horrible… I'd better tell Amy…" Stephen sighed, wandering over to the Rose residence, knowing that Amy was there, if anywhere.

* * *

The moment Brian heard, he into Luna's room, or tried to, at least. A robot guard quickly placed him within a medical suit, sterile to new degrees. Only after the suit was on securely, was Brian allowed to enter.

A special team of the few doctors on board funneled medicine into Luna to treat the various infections she had caught since her long trip in the wilderness. Those medications were doing fine.

It was her disease the worried him.

"Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome… haven't seen it in years…" Stephen's breath was ragged and hopeless.

"How did she get this? She claims to be a virgin!" Brian demanded.

"Nature works in queer, sadistic ways Brian… it must have been acquired through some accidental exposure to blood. Amy had to take a long, hot shower to get rid of any trace of Luna's blood on her. I don't work the same way animals do, so I don't count here." Stephen explained.

"So… how bad is it?"

"She has about… well, nearly no T lymphocytes… we can stop it from killing her… but… she'll need to be in a bubble for most of her life if she wants to keep herself safe from infections… and, we can only stop her symptoms, but we can't keep her alive outside of a bubble…"

"Why me?" Brian's eyes began to water.

Luna's small body lay there, illuminated by the bright, white light of the room. Brian held her hand hopelessly through the protective suit as he watched the doctors treat her symptoms through medicine.

"I swear to you Luna…" Brian muttered with ferocious determination, "I'm going to be the best boyfriend you'll ever have… I'm going to cure you… you're going to have a normal life."

"Brian, with our technological prowess in the medical field, that is nearly-"

"I don't care! She WILL have a normal life…" Brian stormed out of the room.

"How tragic… who'd have thought she'd be a carried for AIDS… I hope Brian finds a way…" Stephen looked at the masked, suited doctors in the room, nodded, and retreated through the double exit.

Stephen figured that he'd work on a few of the mechanical projects at this point, seeing as Tails had vanished, and the building was in shambles. First on his list was Sarah's broken arm. He alone could fix this, and that was how he started the repairs.

* * *

_Six days later…_

* * *

Amy breathed in deeply. It had been two days since she had last gotten out of bed. Sonic was gone. It was a hard concept to grasp. The man she married, the man she fell in love with, the man she raised her child with, her childhood hero, all gone with the pull of a trigger.

One day, she knew, she'd just remember the happier thoughts of the relationship. But until then, she just glanced out the window, right to the spot where Sonic's life was taken from him.

"Some wounds can't heal…" Amy sighed hopelessly, pulling the covers back over her head. Stephen had given her time to cope, and she needed to take it, badly.

* * *

"So let's see… Sarah's arm's been fixed, we've got a new power source… the Turrets still need repairing… robots must be rebuilt… walls still need repairing…" Stephen passed by a small hallway leading into the center of the base.

The doorway was mangled and scorched. The very metal that made it up had shriveled and contorted. Peering in, he noticed a faint green glow, and a lone figure guarding it.

"Knuckles is still guarding that Master Emerald… wow, he sure is devoted…"

Suddenly, Stephen was reminded of something. _That Emerald kept us afloat… as it did the Typhoon… the energies… powered…_ Stephen's mind went off on a tangent as he fell to his knees.

"Energies of the Controller… Amplified in the shrine… a big gun… the ability to pierce the stars…"

Stephen rolled onto his back as he reeled in the possibilities with this idea in his mind.

"But… that power… needs… restraint… too strong… dampening blanket… powerful… errg…." Stephen rubbed his head heavily.

In a moment's notice, he was back on his feet. An image stuck in his head, and he didn't like it one bit.

But it worked.

"I really, really don't want to do that." He muttered, heading towards his command station quickly.

The room turned gloomy as he entered it. Shadows danced around as lights on the screen rushed to and fro. The moment the doors shut, Stephen looked up.

There before him, were Sylvia and Lucien, plastering their avatars on the main screen in life size form, looking at him. Sylvia was sitting with each leg under the other, Indian style, ad Lucien was, as always, standing alert and attentive.

"What is it Stephen?"

"What ails you Master?" They spoke in unison.

Stephen was silent as he thought of a way to phrase it.

"I have figured out a way to stop GUN and XT." He concluded.

Lucien and Sylvia looked at each other, smiled, and turn to Stephen with glee.

"Master, I don't know how you do it, but-"

"GO STEPHEN!" Sylvia cheered. "The war is-"

"Not going to be over. But GUN will be gone… and XT destroyed… but…" Stephen looked at his two creations sternly, and began to tell them his plan.

They were so silent and solemn, not even a bat could've spied on their conversation. It remained like this for nearly 5 hours, with Stephen and his two AI's locked in the command station, fine tuning everything that needed to take place.

* * *

Sarah had been doing a bit better than her mother. She was still sad, and hadn't done much, but, she had finally accepted that nothing was going to change the fact that her father was gone. It was, believe it or not, an improvement.

A faint tapping on her door alerted her from her drowsy state of being. Sluggishly, she got out of bed, repositioned her robe, and walked to the door.

"Sarah? Can I come in?" Stephen's voice called quietly.

"Yes, absolutely Stephen." Sarah opened the door and the gray mass that was her boyfriend tumbled in.

"Sarah…" Stephen's voice trembled slightly, "we have to win this war no matter what… right?"

"Yes Stephen. You promised us all a future, and me especially that we'd have a peaceful world to raise a baby in." Sarah whispered, watching Stephen's eyes twinkle until water began pouring out. "Are you ok Stephen?"

Stephen grabbed Sarah and hugged her tightly. "And a peaceful world you will have Sarah. I promise you…" The pendant Sarah had found in the sands appeared in Stephen's hand once more as he hugged her tighter.

"Stephen, what's wrong?" Sarah loosened her grasp on him, her metal hand easing its grip.

"I feel every emotion at once Sarah… fear, happiness, joy, anger, jealousy… love… Sarah…" Stephen pulled her closer, "I love you."

Sarah made a slight moan the moment Stephen's tongue entered her mouth, and gleefully she returned the pleasure. A minute later, Stephen began kissing her face and neck, and Sarah's robe began to fall off.

"Stephen… don't stop…" She begged as her floor fell to the ground.

Stephen's hand began working at the fixture on Sarah's back as he kissed once more.

"I don't plan to." He affirmed as the top piece of her clothing fell to the ground.

Sarah's one wish was finally fulfilled.

* * *

**I'm sorry it was so rushed towars the end there... I just wanted to finish it... not so much a crime, now is it?**

**More coming soon...**


	21. Progress

Sarah woke up four hours later than normal; the alarm clock had been shut off long ago. Oddly, she didn't even remember turning it off. She sat up groggily, trying to remember when she fell asleep, but, once the covers fell off her, revealing her bare breasts, she was instantly reminded of the previous night.

She grabbed the covers and covered herself quickly, blushing wildly.

"D-did that happen?" Sarah remembered the feelings all too well and shivered pleasantly.

She looked around for Stephen, only to find a clean, empty room. She found it a little odd that Stephen wasn't there, and that the room, which had been completely trashed in their all night escapade, looked brand new. Thinking it over, she decided that Stephen had things that needed to be done for the people, and that before she woke up, he had the room cleaned and repaired.

Sorely, she got out of bed, and immediately fell to the ground. She had no control over her legs whatsoever.

With no other way to move, she crawled to her dresser, and pulled out a single, long dress, a little out of style for her, but it was easy, and might be able to hide her wobbly legs.

Sliding on a pair of panties and hooking up a bra, she was ready to face the day's challenges. Using the dresser as a ladder, she climbed up to a standing position, and tried to walk towards the bed.

With two steps, she fell forwards, and landed on her back on the bed, grinning wickedly.

"I had sex with Stephen!" She cheered; a life goal had been completed that night.

"I am a woman now! Yippee!" She rolled off the bed and attempted to run around the room, only stumbling in joy, and landing on the floor.

Hopping back onto her feet, debatably the happiest she'd been in her whole life, she tried to walk through the door. She made it, but, in order to walk, she needed the aid of a wall.

* * *

Being in public was awkward for her. She could not help the most bizarre feeling that there was some giant, protruding message from her lower abdomen, screaming to everyone what she had done. She felt partially guilty, _but of what crime?_ She finished her thoughts gleefully.

"Hey, do you know where Stephen is?" She asked a passerby in hopes of proclaiming her love to Stephen in a sober state of mind.

"He's in the workshop, he is making some new stuff I've been told…" The young cat girl spoke quietly.

"Thank you so much!" Sarah began hobbling her way over to the workshop with the widest grin on her face.

* * *

Brian was in the lab, working furiously. Testing his own DNA was important to him. He figured that, being a plant, some of the chemical properties in the flowers over his body may be able to be extracted in order to lighten the curse of AIDS and Luna. So far, he'd had no luck.

Luna had little to no immune system at this point. For 7 years, the virus had consumed her bodies T-cells, and ruined her ability to fight disease and stay healthy. With Stephen's technology, and the efforts of common medical technology, Luna could live, but she'd have to spend her life literally in a bubble, devoid from hand to hand contact with anyone, or the ability to hug or kiss Brian himself ever again.

_Damit… I should've let her sleep with me that night… then none of this may never have happened… she would've stayed in the sleeping bag, and not gotten bitten…_ Though he realized that something, eventually, would've gotten her sick, he still wished that someone was to blame.

It made things easier to be upset about.

Though, in all of his testing, something befuddled him. He had attempted to infect his isolated cells for a long while, but nothing ever really worked. It was as if something was preventing the virus from latching.

"That is so messed up…" He sighed, throwing his work on the table. "The virus won't even latch to me!" Then it hit him, the virus wasn't latching. _Why isn't it working on me?_

For awhile, he pondered this, starting up many more tests.

* * *

Stephen was tampering with a new project, a sleek, silver extreme gear that looked almost liquid it was so smooth. The holes on the bottom were only barely visible, and the back end contained two large nozzles, reading to burst into speed.

"Stephen!!!" A voice called from the hallway. A few of the workers in the workshop looked up as Stephen pulled up his facemask.

"Sarah, you should be asleep for another hour… I was going to wake you... but-"

"Shut up you fool!" She sung melodically, and staggered over to him, latching on the way only a Rose knew how. "I love you…"

"Why the suddenly peppy mood?"

"My dad is gone…" she looked down sadly with hurtful memory, "but there is nothing that anyone can do to change that. Last night was a glimpse into the future… I can be happy the rest of my life, knowing that that kind of pleasure is possible…" She kissed him passionately. "I love you with every ounce of my body… I only wish I could show you…"

Stephen's face turned beat red, originally, he wanted to keep this event relatively under the weather, but the guys and girls in the workshop looked at the couple partially snickering, Sarah had other plans with their escapade.

"Never let me go honey… I love you…" Sarah snuck her way into his chest and began squeezing the life out of him.

"Ok, Sarah… I love you, I really do, but we have a job to do around here!" He said in mock excitement. "Listen, now that you're up, I've got a special mission for you, ok? Can you go talk to your mother, and have her help you gather people for another meeting… the intercom is being shut down…"

"Anything for you, my lovely, sexy Stephen…" She cooed before leaving.

"That girl is something else." Stephen chuckled, working on his board again. "And, assuming that none of you have the audacity to ask about details, please get back to work on these tasks I've assigned you, we must get done soon… this ship isn't going to build itself you know…"

"Actually, I've got the audacity." A male leopard asked him.

"Ok, then I'll answer your question with one of my own; I can stretch every aspect of my anatomy, and make limbs up at will, can you see why she limps, and why she's so tired?" Stephen laughed wildly, and the others looked at each other in awe, jealousy, and envy.

* * *

_Where I am?_ Luna groaned, struggling to open her eyes.

About her head, a bright light, with many masked figures all hovering over her head, alien at first glance.

"… Tragic… hope gone… future…"

"Isolation… disease…"

"Any contagiousness… worry…"

She only heard fragments, but she began to worry horribly.

"Unggh…" She moaned, trying to speak through the anesthesia.

"She's coming about…"

"Everyone, watch your masks, we don't want germs to spread."

"Wha…?"

"Luna… you must remain here, ok? You're in peril of death."

"What? What… happened?"

Luna struggled to keep her eyes open as the doctors and nurses began to exit the room.

"The more you breathe, the more likely the germs can be spread… we've got to get out of here…"

And they left her. Luna opened her eyes fully, and sat up.

"What the hell? Am I… infected with something? I remember… passing out… the bug bites? Did I get something from them?"

Luna sat on her bed holding her head, panicking as she looked over her body for any abnormalities.

* * *

"Your miserable machine! You killed Damian! Explain yourself at once!" Omen growled as their pet robot proudly strode into the command center after entering the hole in the bottom.

The robot blinked, possibly confused. "Mission was to destroy Sonic. Sonic was already destroyed. By means of a rank system, I deduced that the new target was the object known as Fat Man, the one responsible for Sonic's death. He bested Sonic, and therefore, assumed the title of Sonic. By killing Fat Man, I killed Sonic, just as the General had asked."

Omen paused for a moment.

_This is actually very nice… Damian was always a pain in my ass anyways, making radical new machines and always obsessed with killing Sonic, always losing the main goal in this war, to get rid of these horrible creatures…_ _This robot shouldn't be punished, it should be congratulated…_

Slowly, Omen began to clap. "Very good. You have completed your mission. Now, your new mission is to wait here. The rebels have a dangerous weapon, one that I fear we cannot defeat. Stay here for your protection and wait."

"Affirmative." It responded, and then it stopped all physical actions as its eyes dimmed to a powered down mode, storing energy.

"Now, my dearest and most loyal group. The moment we get back at base, we must build something important. One of those blasted hedgehogs, Sarah, I think her name is, has the ability to have a super form, just like her father Sonic. That creature will be the end of us, unless we can find a way to beat it. If memory serves, Damian's creator Dr. Ivo Robotnik invented a machine that, at one point, pulled Sonic out of his super form, and into a normal state."

"Sir, I do remember this… you speak of the ray that split the world into pieces so long ago… the one that Dark Gaia was summoned with…"

"Yes, we must replicate the technology that removed the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic's body… it should work the same on Sarah, and until it is built, we cannot make a frontal assault… she can rip through our ships like tin foil… we must lure her to us…"

The men and women around the station looked cautiously at Omen as they shifted in their seats.

"What, cowards? Are we going to let the LAST of these animals get the better of us? I think not! Let us strive for this goal and show them how the Human Race is supreme!"

Omen cackled as the ship's crew roared with him, the brightest minds hacking into the old files in Damian's computer, attempting to plan out the Chaos Extraction machine.

* * *

Sarah stood in a crowd of people in the remains of the main lobby, watching the middle podium for a sign of Stephen. Obediently, she fulfilled her lover's wishes, and now wished to know what was going on.

"Ok, everyone, everyone, calm down…" Stephen begged as he swooped in from above on his wings.

Stephen stood on the stage and looked down at the people he had so long protected. Individually, he locked eyes with each one, silencing them in an aura of awe, fear, and gravity.

"Now… last night… some things happened to me… I… I came up with a way to stop GUN." Stephen's face pulled forwards at a simultaneous intake of air, "We are few now… and we are tired. We've lost good men and women… and we've lost ones dear to our hearts. Why should we have to do this? Suffer… like… mindless creatures? Did we ever once think to talk this over?"

"They would never listen!" One cried out.

"Aye Stephen, we have tried, and they always ignored us, shot at us instead!" Another agreed.

"Now, now… what if we spoke with big words… with some backup? I mean… think about it… we are tired of fighting… and of losing lives. We're done running… at least, I am. I don't know about all of you, but I'm sick and tired of these forsaken humans hunting us down and cornering us into the pits of extinction!" Stephen grit his teeth, "But we cannot fight them… we cannot stoop to their level…"

"So what, are we to just march in and beg for peace?"

"Exactly." Stephen exclaimed, enlightened at their realization. "We're done with fighting, it gets us nothing but pain and loss… I say, we march right up to Omen's base, and declare a moment of truce. If they choose to ignore us, and shoot at us, we will fight like the feral creatures they think us to be. But if they wish to talk, perhaps in fear of us, or maybe, out of what little passion they may hold in their hearts… then maybe… just maybe… we have a shot at peace. I mean, what have we got to lose?"

"OUR LIVES!" An old male shouted.

"Look at yourself, sir! Are you living? Is this life of secrecy and espionage a life worth living? Pull yourself together! We're already as good as dead, I cannot protect you as long as XT is alive… if GUN agrees with us… we can live again… and slowly, but definitely over time… regain the rights that were taken from us. Who is with me on this?"

Hesitance followed.

"Do we have a choice?" One woman asked at last.

"You do." Stephen answered, "You can follow me into the fire, in any vain hope of smothering it, or you can remain in the frying pan, at the mercy of the fire." Stephen concluded. **(A/N: Most epic quote I've ever come up with, I think...)**

That did it for the most of them.

"Ok. Let's do this. This is the final straw. Either they'll accept our demands for freedom, or we're going to die fighting for them. LET'S DO THIS!" Another figure shouted out.

"AYE!" THe rest of the group shouted in adrenaline-spiked vigor.

"Very good." Stephen smiled victoriously, "Now, let's get down to business…"

The clamor began to die down as Stephen held his arms in the air, begging for a lower decibel level.

"So, now we've got a decent amount of people that want to follow me into GUN's headquarters, but now the question is, how do we get there?" Stephen looked around for attention of his crowd, "Well, look around you. We have everything we need to survive a few more weeks, and enough building materials to comfortably build a new ship. Albeit, it won't be able to fly, only the Master Emerald's unique set up in addition to the gravity wells beneath Laputa could've done that, both are damaged and unsalvageable, as far as I know. So, the idea is that we are to build a massive ship on land, like a train, and that will take us straight to GUN.

"There is one catch, however… I cannot do this alone. To build a ship to house 300 and maybe more would take weeks by myself… we don't have weeks. We have days. I know how to build this train, but I need your help. Does everyone here agree to making a ship capable of moving us, and providing shelter once we get there, to GUN?"

"What would you have us do?" The woman asking for the choice now asked.

"It is very simple… really…" Stephen smiled once more as he uttered to the people. "Follow me!"

* * *

The crowd gasped as they entered the cavity in the ship. Its spacious halls brought in light from above through holes in the roof, and lightened the smoky air with fresh, natural, authentic air.

"Amazing what can happen in a crash, right? This hall was created from the fall. It used to be between the medical and industrial halls... Now, it is neighboring the workshop, and is ready to produce some big things for us. We are going to take apart Laputa, and remodel it into a mobile, land base in the shape of a long train, or a series of cabs that will be linked together somehow. This is easy to mass produce, and will allow us to work on similar projects for awhile. We don't have much time… so we must work fast." Stephen began slowly.

"So, we're working fast, but on what?"

"Simple. I need a group of people, big strong ones, to cut sections of Laputa up, and send them to another group of extremely intuitive ones who will separate them into metal types. From there, I need some of our brighter minds to come together to start working on how each metal can be applied to the cab design, meaning improvisation, because I know we do not have the same metals I want for this train… Then, I need everyone else, preferably skilled with their hands, to fuse together the pieces of each cab together. Ladies who want to help with this, this is probably something that you will find extraordinarily easy to accomplish, as you are keen with your eyes and hands. Now people, do what you think you can; here are the plans, I've two copies, one for you and one for me. I'll copy these and send them out to each station for manufacturing. Let's get started right away, ok?"

"What about food? Who will help us with that?"

"I don't want anyone breaking if they can help it. If you think you're not fit for any other job, please, cater food and drinks to anyone who requires it. Our resources are beginning to dwindle though, remember that…" With that, Stephen walked away into the lab next door, fixating his mind on other projects of dire importance.

"Ok guys! Let's get chopping!" A group of men cheered as they ran to the weapons provided for them to start hacking down sections of the felled base.

* * *

Brian carried with him a single tray of food, packaged into a sterile compartment. As he approached Luna's room, he let the machines shower him down heavily, and got into a medical suit, not wanting to infect Luna with anything.

The moment the door opened, Luna looked up. Her eyes were stained red with tears and her body looked impossibly frailer than normal.

"Stay away from me! I'm going to die…" She whimpered at the uniform making its way to her with food.

"No honey… you're not going to die," said a familiar voice.

"Br-Brian?" She trembled.

"Hello Luna." He answered her call calmly.

"Brian what is wrong with me? Everyone is worried about getting some virus from me! I'm so scared… I don't want you to get it either…"

"Oh Luna… AIDS can't be spread to other people! It only allows things to be spread to you so easily, that's why those bug bites hurt you so much… you had no-"

"AIDS? I have… AIDS?"

"Yes you do, you must've gotten it-"

"What is that? It sounds so familiar…"

"Luna, long ago, Mobians and Humans alike were highly prone to get the AIDS virus, but after a long period of losing proper hosts for it, the virus died out, as we began to grow immunities. The AIDS virus slowly eats away at your immune system, blocking your body's ability to stop other viruses and bacterial infections. Unfortunately, the virus really only died down, the immunities we obtained prevented us from the more general forms of getting it. We know it can still easily be passed on once obtained though… the problem is finding someone who has it anymore."

"So… how do I pass it to you?" Luna asked faintly.

"Sharing bodily fluids."

"So… like kissing?"

"Nah, that's fine. But sex ought to be out of the question. Anyone who sleeps with you risks getting that infection from you."

"No… that is… so unfair!" Luna threw her head down and groaned as she wrapped it around her face.

Brian sat down on the bed.

"You still want to have sex with me?" Brian asked, looking at her as he grabbed her hand.

"Or at least someone! But… ugh!" She groaned yet again.

"Well I've got some good news… kind of…" Brian spoke through the mask.

"What?" Luna perked up.

"I can't get AIDS. Neither can Cosmo. Seedrian Blood is incompatible with the virus. And I have it in my veins."

"So… I can have sex with you?"

"No. I can have sex with _you_ though." Brian smiled through his mask as he held her hand.

"Take that damn thing off then and take me! Please!" She demanded.

"No. Not yet… there is still a problem with it… I don't know how your body would react to my semen in you, or my saliva in your mouth… I just don't know… I'm… working on a cure… maybe my blood can grant you some temporary immunity, I don't know. But know that there is a chance that we can have sex sometime…"

"Hug me please? I don't give a damn about the food." Luna outstretched her arms to Brian. The brainy plant-fox took the diminutive wolf in his arms and lifted his mask, giving her a kiss on the forehead, chaste and terse, but with as much emotion as he could pour in.

"Now, I've got to go, ok? Stephen is bringing us all into the GUN base to demand our freedom, and we're building a giant train like vehicle to get us all there. I think he's taking the sick too." Brian smiled at her.

"Before… before that night then… can we do that? I mean, if we're going to die, I'd rather die with a grin on my face than regret."

"We'll see. I'd personally rather die an unmarried virgin, but we'll see… You're so cute you may just be worth it." He smiled as he closed his mask and exited the room while waving goodbye.

Luna pulled the covers close to her heart. Suddenly, her future became a hell of a lot brighter.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, little happened. Each day, the group was capable of dishing out three cabs, each being one story high, 30 feet by 60 feet. Each was supposed to be a small house, with one room for quite a few people, minimal storage for anything they'd like to take with them to the other world. The other world, to them at least, was either a world without GUN, or a world where the living were not present, in each they'd find solace, that soothed many. Also in each cabin, windows to view outside, small shields, and even some of the pen lasers that Stephen had a secret cache of. With each one able to fire ten shots, they had a small chance to survive.

Lucien, Sylvia, and Stephen oversaw each cab as they were produced. Stephen, in his spare time, would sneak over to the lab next door and keep working on his private projects, the likes of which had not yet been revealed. Everyone was so busy they hardly cared what he was doing in that room, so long as they finished their cabs.

As far as morale went, however, people were at some of the lowest yet. It was morbid work, building something that very likely could be your own tomb. Stephen knew this, but spurred them on with insightful messages, promises of a better life, and of peace, prosperity, but no one ever seemed to believe him. Either way, productivity stayed up, so Stephen was still happy with that.

But, for the grey experiment, a new mission he had on his mind.

Of all of the people in the base, a single one contributed no support nor provide help to the goal; Knuckles the Echidna. Stephen wanted to change that.

"Hey Knuckles! Everyone else need as much help as they can get, surely you can put your old strong muscles to good use and help us!"

"No. They'll all die eventually. Why would I bother helping the inevitable? Besides, I have to protect the Master Emerald. No matter how few anthropomorphic creatures died or live, this Jewel will need a guardian, and I am the last fit enough to do so. I cannot leave its side in fear of being stolen, broken, or damaged."

"I see… well, I'll be back if you change your mind." Stephen replied cheerfully, turning about and exiting the chamber to the workplace.

The moment the door shut, Knuckles sighed. _No one is to be trusted around the Emerald. It MUST be protected._

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Knuckles felt a phenomenal pain in the left side of his head, and his vision began to blur. As he fell to the ground, he caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure slinking to the base of the Master Emerald. That was the last thing he saw that day.

* * *

A few minutes later, Stephen speedily checked off everyone daily progress, and locked himself into his lab once more. Sheepishly feeling the shrunken jewel in a pocket in his body, he armed himself into his latest invention, a small rocket.

The moment he was inside this puny, hardly one man creation, he began typing away at a small robot's computer brain. As he tapped a final button, a slot opened on the back of its neck, and he slid a sample of Knuckles DNA onto it.

"I'm so sorry Knuckles… you have the rest of your life to be angry at me…" Stephen apologized as the rocket launched him up into space rapidly to complete his secret business.

* * *

"Hey Sylvia, where is Stephen?" Sarah asked cutely.

"Away on a quick errand, that's what he told me at least." Sylvia's tone was a bit abnormal, not as peppy.

"Oh… do you know when he'll be back? I want to snuggle with him!" She giggled.

"Not really Sarah, he does whatever it is he has to do, I think he's trying to keep me out of the loop…" Sylvia's avatar's eyes squinted as if to be scrupulous.

Sarah dejectedly walked away, but a smile remained on her face, however faint. As she worked at piecing together the metals and gizmos that she was instructed to combine, her mother came over carrying form food for lunch.

"You know, I've only just realized it, but you've been happy recently." Amy remarked.

Sarah blushed wildly. "Yeah, I have…"

"So, why is this?"

"Please don't get mad at me mom… Stephen and I… we made love, ok? I don't know, a few days ago, he just burst into my room crying, it must have been an emotional breakthrough on his part. Well, from there, he kissed me, I kissed back, and he started kissing my neck, and then… you draw it out from there… I always wanted to, so, I'm very happy about it. I don't care if I'm not married to him…"

"He's such a good kid… I mean, if it were anyone else, it would almost seem like rape. I mean, he comes into your room, unclothes you, and then basically demands it from you… but, we know the scenario a bit better… my bet is that he wanted to make you happy again, so he did the one thing he hadn't done yet."

"I love him so much, mom…" Sarah sighed dreamily.

"And he loves you, probably more than you realize. That's why I'm so confident in his leadership. He'll do anything to keep you alive and safe, and to give you a future you deserve."

Sarah blushed as warm feelings entered her heart, her emotions bubbling to the brim. "I'm just so glad that I get to spend the rest of my life with… _that._"

"It is always so magical the first time." Amy chuckled in amusement.

"No mom, you don't understand… it was something else…" Sarah gawked with her eyes agape.

"I think this is going to get a little awkward…" Amy noted, and left Sarah with her food.

* * *

"LISTEN UP YOU MORONS!" Omen shouted through a megaphone, "IF THAT THING ISN'T COMPLETE SOON, THEY WILL COME IN WITH SARAH AND OBLITERATE US! WORK FASTER!"

Omen had been screaming at them for days. Night and day, they worked nonstop trying to build the machine they had stolen from Damian's secret files. If it worked, it would take the power of the Chaos Emeralds forcibly from a Super and remove their powers. The only real problem is that they had no outlet for energy. In the original design, a massive gun unleashed the near infinite powers used in extracting the Chaos Emeralds and their extraordinary radiation towards the planet, splitting it into various floating segments.

The researchers weren't sure what kind of an outlet they should use, but they knew it was best to have one, even if it were some form of a capacitor.

The machine, at the rate it was being built, ought to be done in ten day's time.

* * *

"Hey Sarah?" Stephen asked cautiously as he entered her room as the clock struck a minute past 22:14.

"Hey sweetie!" Her head tilted slightly in awe of every aspect of him. It was like falling in love all over again.

"I just wanted to let you know something… ok? I don't want you to worry, or panic when you can't find me, but, I'm not going to be here for much of the night… I have to talk to an important person outside our base…"

"Who is our ally outside of here?"

"We don't have any, as far as we know. I was trying to keep that from you…" Stephen sighed, feeling the growing worry in Sarah's face.

"No. Please, I need you alive and well, don't go where you're not wanted… please…" Sarah began to tremble as tears formed in her eyes.

"Sarah… for starters, as far as we know, I can't die. Secondly, I'm a master of disguise, and can sneak in anywhere as anyone. Another thing is that no matter what happens to me, even if I do get killed, even if all this stuff you've told me about heaven is a great big lie, I'll always love you, remember that. Ok? I'll be back before… before your desire to have me like you did the other day diminishes." He smirked evilly.

Suddenly, a grin appeared on her face, "you mean that, don't you?"

"Anything for my beloved. I'll be back, I promise." Stephen pulled her close and let his tongue completely envelope her own.

A moan later, Stephen let her go, and dashed off through the halls.

"Be careful…" the light blue hedgehog whispered.

* * *

In the lab, about a minute later, Stephen began typing on the computer in the lab few frequently entered. He had claimed dominion upon this lab, and already it contained a vast amount of secrets, the first of which revealed itself upon the final tapping of the keyboard.

Behind Stephen, a large table elevated itself a foot or so, and then began to tilt, as if opening a large box. Encased within this box, seven bright jewels were encased within dark blocks on anti-radiation material, stopping any signal between the Emeralds. The queer thing about it was that beyond these seven, many dimmer lights flickered within similar cases. Stephen's face was illuminated by the combined sparkle as he lifted a dim, clear crystal from a block, making sure to shut the giant stash carefully as it left that section of the lab.

Silently, he stiffly strode towards another side of the room. Once he got towards the wall on the far side, vast and bare to the naked eye, he waved the jewel over the expanse, and things began to change.

From the wall, a single panel fell, falling off of the wall and onto the floor smoothly. Embedded in the wall, a strange device was located. With a single hand, Stephen pulled the long, two wheeled device from the wall, and rested it on the ground besides him, standing it upright.

"My precious little bike… we've got one more errand to run…" Before, it ran on artificial Chaos Drives. Now, Stephen had a little more juice to place into it.

Upon inserting the False Emerald into the engine, the machine purred loudly, more than it ever had. Stephen mounted the sides, shrinking to his natural, child-like body, and gave the handlebar a squeeze.

The machine jerked forwards, trigger-happy. Stephen smiled as he used his legs to waddle the device to an exit of the base, not too far out of the lab.

The moment the motorcycle touched the ground, Stephen sighed. He used to joyride his invention all of the time before the war. Secretly, he kept it, waiting to race Sarah again. The bike had the capability of moving about as fast as Sonic could, on land, but once Stephen hit the air, which was unavoidable, as the drag from the speed often triggered his wings to bulge out, the bike's speed dropped.

Stephen built it with the design flaw in mind, and made it fairly light, so it was easy and limber in the air. Tapping his wrist and holding it to his face, he left only a single message.

"Sylvia, Lucien, take care of the base. I'll be back in no time." Stephen strapped on the backpack he'd been carrying, thick and heavy containing a case of some strange device.

Ready to roll, he sped off at the speed of sound, whirring across the plains straight to a single, faraway town; Station Square. The moment he reached mach 2, his wings spread and the bike gracefully soared into the night above, vanishing without a trace.

* * *

Once a metropolis of peace and prosperity between humans and animals, Station square had become a thriving human utopia, complete with the same problems that riddled it before, all of which, were blamed on nonexistent animals who couldn't get into the city gates.

It was Stephen's sole job at the moment to rig up the city to his needs.

The moment the lights of the city could be seen in the nightscape above, Stephen made a sharp nosedive from the sky and folded his wings. Cruising at a brisk speed, he loosened his backpack, and opened the case within. Small, long rods with faint glowing embers within them were pulled out, and one by one, as Stephen curved around the outskirts of the city, he buried them into the ground at an acute angle.

The moment the task was done, he hid the sack in a compartment in his bike, and zoomed into the city, taking the guise of a helmet wearing human.

Streets blurred by as Stephen roared into town. He only made a single, brief stop, and once there, he dismounted, and locked his bike up nice and tight near the stairwell of the city's main hall.

A town meeting was in session, he knew this from an intercepted email chain that he'd been watching for the past few days. He had one mission, and that was to intrude.

"Uh, sir, there is a meeting in session, you can't go through there." The petite secretary alerted him.

"Ma'am… I've traveled far, and gone through hell, this is one of my last stops before the climax, and I'm not going to be stopped by your laws. Besides," Stephen reverted back into his childish form for a moment, "I don't apply to them."

Assuming the form of a human biker, he left the secretary agape as he marched through the doors, and into the small meeting.

"These halls are off limits. A meeting is in session, please leave."

"I've not come this far to turn back now." Stephen exclaimed, stepping into the light in front of the Mayor and resuming his true form. A gasp overcame the whole group of people, and the Mayor himself gripped the podium in pure terror.

"Guards!" The Mayor shouted.

"Now, now, I mean you no harm at all. Lower your weapons, and please, let me speak. When I am done, you may do with me as you wish. Deal?" Stephen offered.

A few moments of silence, and the Mayor nodded, "Ok, speak, creature."

"I love it how you treat something you don't even know…" Stephen sighed, "Sir, I'm just going to tell you how it is, and I make no threat to you or your people. GUN has hunted a pocket of animals under my careful guidance, all of which have survived in Tails workshop for the past four years, back down to the ground, and is probably preparing a strike force to kill us all in the upcoming week. Now I don't mean to be rude, but in a week's time, things are going to change around Station Square… I promise you, when the time comes, you'll understand. I just want to make sure that… when that situation comes around… that you will make the right decision and spare life where you can…"

"What do you mean? Who are you?"

"I am Stephen, Stephen the Deviant. I am a genetic experiment designed to be the world's second Ultimate Lifeform. My powers have proven a match for the Great Shadow since infancy, and have only been honed since. GUN is threatening my girlfriend, and other's very close to me… because of this constant threat, I'm going remove them from the picture, get rid of the combatant all together. I only ask that you don't panic when this happens, and realize that the only person who is left with energy to fight, amidst that entire group of 300 plus animals, is me. Please, don't be to the rest of them… I'm the only one with a will to fight anymore… I've spurred them forwards on the basis of survival and hope… for too long… for little longer will they follow me, and I know it is too much to ask of them anyways. Please sir, it is all I ask… when the time comes… make the right decision… just think what you would do in my situation, as a person, not an animal."

The Mayor stood there, taking it all in for the longest time, and then let loose a long, drawn out breath.

"I'll make you a deal, only because I'm feeling a bit sympathetic for you. I would have my agents kill you and take you in, but I'm going to let you go, or at least, give you a minute head start before I let them loose."

"Sir, I couldn't agree more. And believe it or not, I'm glad. This is progress to the goal. Adieu." With a bow, Stephen walked out of the hall, and back towards his bike outside.

The moment the door shut, he heard the clanking of feet, a bit slower than a run, chasing after him. By the time he was on the bike, the men had come outside the door, looking at him suspiciously as he waved farewell from his bike. The next moment, he was gone in a burst of wind.

* * *

**Ok... I'm not so sure this one was rushed as I am pretty sure that it was choppy... a LOT was going on at different times, and I'm not all too sure I like that... please, bear with me, I'm trying to get this done soon, but I can't make any promises. My exgirlfriend is wreaking havoc on my state of mind by going out with another Junior in HER area... I'm starting to loath love like a heartstruck teenager, oop! I am one...**

**More coming soon...**


	22. Armageddon

**I don't want to make fun of, or parody off of MJ, but, "This Is It." The climax I've been dying to write is NOW. The longest chapter I think I've ever written, "Armageddon" is a colossal 27 pages long, and scarily enough, that may have been cuttng it short! I am so happy with how this turned out (it could've been better, but it is still so beautiful,) that I am, not even fucking with you, crying right now...**

**Blessed chapter, HERE WE GO!**

* * *

The days came and went as the anxiety built. The team of animals Stephen guided had remained morbidly calm through it all, and by the end of today, Stephen had announced, the last link in the road train would be complete, and they'd all move out as soon as they could.

Unlike most of his speeches, however, few people cheered here.

"Hey, I know you're all angry, frustrated, upset, sad or in mourning. I'm right there with you. Sure, I have my beloved girlfriend with me, but, chances are… we're all going to die. I don't want it anymore than you do. But, not to go quoting movies here, if they're going to take our lives, let's give them hell before they do." Stephen tried to be a bit humorous.

"Stephen, not today…" Someone sighed aloud for all to hear.

"I understand. Carry about your business, and do your best, ok? We're almost done. No matter what lies beyond this juncture, it cannot be worse than anything we've been through before."

Stephen retired from the podium to the laboratory area, and sat down exhausted. The previous nights he'd spent most of the time trying to engineer a new weapon for the people to use against GUN, but his brain was thoroughly fried by this point.

As Stephen sighed and let his head rest back onto his command chair, he caught a glimpse of Brian walking in the halls.

"He's smart… he can help…" Stephen lugged himself off the chair and flung himself to the doorway that Brian had just walked past. The poor hybrid was heading towards the food court, no doubt to get Luna a meal for a bit later.

"Hey Brian!" Stephen called, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah Stephen?" Brian almost seemed annoyed.

"Can you help me? I need a brain that can help me solve some problems I haven't been able to fix…"

"_YOU_ need help? Oh, this is new. Yeah, sure, I'll see what I can do…"

"Thank you. Follow me." Stephen strode into his laboratory, and plopped back onto his chair. "Ok… so, it goes like this… I need you to help me create a new way of transporting people and things. Are you familiar with Chaos Control?"

"Quite a bit, yes."

"Ok… we need to make a machine that can induce it, on a selective scale."

"Wait, why?" Brian asked before proceeding.

"When we're fighting…" Stephen sighed, "Speak nothing of my true intentions, for I'll have your head pickled for experimenting later… We're not going to get past GUN… there is no way Omen, in all his stubbornness, will allow us to come up to him, ask or demand for peace, and get it. I know this, and any person still able to use logic may have realized this too. I'm planning on the fight, and I know exactly how to win it, with a hundred percent certainty. But, in order for it to work, I need the people helping me…"

"How would they do that?"

"We need to get some of the fighters from GUN out of there… when the first shot is fired, GUN will send out robots, if they have any left, and humans… if we really want peace, we cannot kill the human, so instead, we have to find a way to incapacitate them."

"Then why do you need the Chaos Control?"

"Grr… because Brian, I do. Towards the end of that battle… I'm going to make you help me now that you know too much… towards the end, I'm going to have our train warp away, and with it, I want the GUN members who probably won't cause as much a problem out of there as well… Do you understand?"

"So… we're going to ask for peace, fight, and then run away again? Stephen, that is pathetic."

"There are things I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Then I'm not helping any."

"Brian, for the love of God! Help me finish these projects and I'll ask NOTHING of you in the future, understood?"

Brian glared Stephen down. The tension had always been there, but rarely had it boiled over. "Perhaps… give me a little more info though."

"I have a secret weapon that is going to make GUN wish it listened to our demands… Nay, I have many. And their combined efforts will destroy everything GUN had worked so hard to accomplish. The organization will not exist once I'm through with them."

"Now that is a good plan, I'd love more details," Stephen gave him the sternest look he'd ever given, and the assistant recoiled cautiously, "I'll help." Brian finally agreed.

"Thank you… now, let's get to work. We've got all day to build these things, and then mass produce them, along with lacing the train with a similar device, on a large scale. The idea is to make them in guns, and have them knock out the victims."

"No need," Brian said confidently, "why not just use some microscopic spores that emit some faint radiation. We can set it so that the computer warps anything that has a certain radiation, and then when the train goes, everyone else goes."

"I… guess that could work… but… how would we stop those spores from landing on things we don't want warped? I only want people going… people, and the people within the machine."

"Well… can we make the radiation be a result from something within humans? Like their odor, or their sweat, or even their own magnetic field, however faint."

"Yeah… and maybe… delivering them via bean bag…" Stephen muttered absentmindedly."

"What?!" Brian said, shocked.

"Well, we could have a little sack, filled with hard beans, and then, the spores within shells within it, launched from small combustible guns at close range, anyone our people hit would get knocked down, and the spores would even have a spreading effect. But… what about the robots?"

"Can we make the beans give off an electrical current?"

"Not without harming the people fatally… but, very high levels of magnetism may offset the robot's ability to process things…"

"But that would affect the spores…"

"Not necessarily, in fact… it may help them by repressing their radiation…"

"I like working with you." Brian admitted, smirking.

"Aye too, now, let's get building."

"Wait, how are we going to build weapons for all of these people in this amount of time?"

Stephen lifted the desk behind him carefully, letting the sparkle enter the room. "Don't worry Brian, we've got all the time in the world."

* * *

Sarah grinned widely as she attached another wire within the hull of her group's train cab. This unnerved some of the people around her greatly.

"Sarah, what the hell? We're all going to die! Why are you so happy?!" The girl next to her growled.

"Because Rosie," Sarah nearly giggled, "we're not going to die."

"Listen, I don't care how awesome your boyfriend is, he can't stop GUN and this XT dude from completely annihilating us. No way in hell."

"I don't know…" Sarah frowned, "when I use my head… and really think it all through. You're right… there doesn't seem a way out of this doom… but, when I use my heart… I see Stephen's smiling face shining down on me, just like the Lord's, and I know it will be just fine." Sarah looked up at the girl named Rosie, "now I don't know if that means I'm going to die, or if I'm going to live, but either way, with Stephen protecting me… everything will go exactly as it should. He'd do everything to keep us alive. Just have faith… you'll see… Stephen will get us through."

Rosie sighed miserably as she continued working. "I guess… I'm not nearly as faithful as you are Sarah… not even close."

"That's ok. God loves all his children." She smiled widely as she dutifully began to work again.

* * *

By the time of sunset, everyone, Brian and Stephen included, had completed their jobs. 300 portable weapons each with over 1000 rounds of ammunition for a short firefight were sitting in the lab, ready to be placed within each of the 30 completed cabs. A network of bizarre machines had also been erected, each set to latch onto and be powered by the cabs.

A few quirks needed to be made with each cab, but besides that, they were ready to go. Just for good measures, Stephen bade everyone to bed. One reason was so that he could finish tampering with each machine properly, the spoken one was that everyone had a goodnight's sleep beforehand.

The moment the people left the room, Brian and Stephen went to town on the cabs. Latching their devices on firmly, no one would ever realize that the small panels were going to save them in the future. Stephen had had a single cab, tricked out with elements from his command station, to lead the cab train out towards GUN's base. His final augmentation for that was placing ports for Sylvia and Lucien, and then finally, his own command chair, within the command cab.

Once they had finished linking the train together, ready to move into fairly quickly, Stephen and Brian retired, but neither to their beds, but the beds of their respective girlfriends.

And thus, a third reason for getting a goodnight's sleep became present.

* * *

"Sarah… tomorrow is going to be a big day." Stephen said solemnly, looking at her as she squirmed in bed.

"Can we try it again?" Sarah begged, putting on her most alluring face.

"We'll see… but first… well… there is one thing I'd really like to do again…"

"Oh, name it Stephen." Sarah allowed gratefully.

"Can we… dance?" Stephen asked awkwardly, assuming a position.

"It would be a bit weird without musi-" And suddenly a small tune whistled into the air of their room, enticing the two to grab each other's waists and sway with a faint rhythm.

"I love you Sarah… so much…" Stephen's eyes watered lightly as his tender grip tightened ever so slightly.

"Stephen, ever since XT knocked us down, you've been acting very strange… are you ok, dear?" Sarah questioned.

"Just fine, just fine Sarah. Don't worry about me, ok? Everyone is going to make it out of this mess unharmed." He twirled her gracefully.

"Are you sure? I don't need to know if you're a really strong tough guy, Stephen. I fell in love with the latching, weak, insecure boy who didn't even know how to speak. You can tell me anything, and I won't think the less of you for it."

Stephen's tears welled up from underneath his eyes, pouring out at a constant rate.

"Sarah… I just don't know anymore… I've made this promise, to keep all of the animals under my command and guidance safe… but can I really, really win a war? I don't know honey… I really don't…" Stephen stopped dancing, and Sarah pulled on him with her metal arm.

Taking it off, she placed Stephen on the bed, and began to cuddle him.

A single kiss later, trying to suck a portion of his mouth into her own, Stephen stopped.

"You really do love me, don't you?" Stephen pulled Sarah close and gave her a hug so wide that he encompassed her entire being within himself.

"Yes… I do…" Sarah did her best to unclothe herself as she lay half buried within him.

A time dragged on slowly, Sarah stayed a mere level above asleep as Stephen treated her to unique, semi-sexual and sexual pleasures that only he could perform.

* * *

Luna squealed with glee as Brian snuck in. The guards had moved her into the cab on the back, making sure that her section was safe and clean.

_I'm going to have sex with him! He wouldn't have come for anything else! It may be our final day, and I get to spend this last night having sex for once! _Luna cheered triumphantly.

"I know what you're thinking." Brian whispered immediately, "and you're wrong. I'm not here to have sex with you."

Immediately, a wave of regret came upon Luna and she made a face revealing her multiple emotions.

"Brian! You dick! You got me all excited… and then… oh…" She groaned.

"You REALLY want me that bad?"

"Well, I want the emotional connection with someone pretty bad… to feel a guy that I trust push his way inside of me… trusting him to go within my limits, even though he has no idea… and then to hug him tightly as the night drags on, keeping him within me for as long as I can savor…"

Brian's lip curled slightly in a smirk. He gently leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"You don't speak of sex at all, Luna." His kissing migrated to her lips as he spoke.

"Yes I do." Luna pulled at him trying to throw him onto the bed.

"No, you speak of making love. And that, I might just do." Brian leaned in further, giving into the slightest of demands of Luna, and she went wild.

A flash of purple enveloped him as he began to hover above her frail body. The blanket from her body likewise fluttered away, and blanketed Brian as his body was lowered onto her nearly nude one.

"Whoa… I forgot you're a psychic…" Brian muttered.

"It comes and goes in time of mental stress."

"Stress?"

"Or any extreme emotion." Luna grinned lustfully as the blanket wrapped around the two of them snuggly.

"Luna, now, I'm going to warn you… there is a chance things could go horribly, horribly wrong from this, ok? I'm going to need like… to plaster my organs up to prevent nearly any bacterial substances getting into your body."

"Shut the fuck up Brian." Luna kissed him as he fumbled with a small tin of contraceptives.

Luna smiled widely as her supposed final night came upon her.

* * *

Stephen and Sarah were the first awake and touring the group's ship. The couples' hands never left each other. Stephen sat at his chair, and Sarah right next to him, both ready to tackle on the challenges of rousing the group.

Many had already boarded, and the belongings of everyone were already packed in, if they wished to bring them along. Stephen made a final announcement to the dilapidated base behind him, ushering forth any man, woman, or child willing to follow him to demand freedom or die.

The already full train filled up a little more after that.

"Everyone, we're off." Stephen announced shortly after.

Knuckles, the poor echidna, had taken a nasty blow to the head, and remembered very little, only that his Emerald was stolen, and that GUN was a likely suspect, somehow. He grimly stood aboard the long strain of speedy cars as he pondered his failing memories for a truth about his blackout.

He never came to anything.

"So, we'll be there within the next four hours?" Stephen asked his two robotic assistants.

"Assuming no pebbles get in the way of the wheels, it shall take 3 hours, 47 minutes, and ten seconds as of… now." Lucien responded promptly.

"Good," Stephen said in turn, tensing his grip on Sarah's hand as he heard the info once more. "Ok Sarah, let's tell the people of this, and of our plan, ok?"

"Ok Stephen." She smiled her lovely smile at him.

One by one, they personally spoke to each cab's members, sharing the happily gloomy information for their arrival time, and their plan.

"It is really simple." Stephen announced, "There are weapons in the closet, ten each, one per person per cab. They all fire old fashioned bullets, so they aren't as effective; but, they don't have to be. Just trust me on this; the bullets will do their job perfectly."

"So, when do we start shooting?"

"Hopefully, we won't have to shoot at all. Before we do this, I'm going to separate myself from this train, and speed over to them, trying to ask for peace. If that fails, you can all open your windows and begin firing at the people that come at us. GUN's base is located in a crater, so, if we encompass that crater, we'll have the high ground."

"Ok, sounds great Stephen… how much time do we have?"

"Right now? Just a little over 3 hours. Do what you what to whatever or whoever, but don't do anything you'd heavily regret. We _will_ get through this. I promise."

At this truth, Sarah beamed.

* * *

Brian and Luna smiled warmly at each other. Last night had been great, and purple-tinted objects that had been scattered throughout the room still floated in the air from the mental instability Luna obtained from such instinctual activity. They had both completely ignored Stephen's statements that they'd all be fine and make it, and expected to die like they're partners before them.

"Now the next cab…" A voice was heard from outside their door.

The moment the doors opened, the four weirdoes stared blankly at one another. Stephen, Brian, Luna, and Sarah, respectively a genetic experiment, a plant animal hybrid, a psychic wolf, and a supersonic hedgehog, all stared at one another in awkwardness.

Suddenly, the widest grin overcame Stephen's face. "SO I MISSED FILMING THAT MILLION DOLLAR PORN FILM?! DAMN IT!" He fell backwards on the floor laughing harder than he had in a long, long while.

"Shut up you damn grey blob! I'll hurt you-" Brian began.

"No honey, I can handle this. WHAT ARE YOU DOING BURSTING IN ON MY ROOM YOU PEEPING TOM?! TAKE THIS!" Suddenly the floating objects in the room sped towards Stephen at an alarming rate. The moment they hit, the stuck to his face, and kept in pinned, still in a state between laughter and pain.

"I guess I'm glad for you…" Sarah mumbled. "But… won't that kill you… with your AIDS and stuff?"

"I can't get AIDS, I've found out." Brian announced gleefully, still underneath Luna in a suspicious position, "and Luna was willing to die to spend a night with me like this. We're all going to die, so, why not?"

"I can tell you straight up Brian, you know most of my plans beyond what I've told everyone, it cannot fail."

"Yeah yeah, secret weapons. Bullshit Stephen. Unless you had someone stable enough to use their superform, sorry Sarah, but you probably are too drained still before you can do it again, you don't stand much a chance against GUN."

"Brian… we have 3 hours, maybe a little less. It will be the mid afternoon when we get there, and it will be all over before sundown. I promise you that."

"Yeah yeah, by all over, you mean ending with our demise… Stephen… don't try it, ok?"

"Listen, when the time comes, I want you to help in fending off the GUN agents, ok?"

"Fine, I don't have any quarrel doing that, but I've already accepted that I'm going to die and lose everything. You might want to do the same Stephen."

Stephen's head sunk low as he turned around. "C'mon Sarah, let's go back to the front of the train…"

Luna and Sarah, both of which had been fairly quiet while their men fought, nodded at each other quietly and peacefully as they parted ways.

* * *

Sarah sat on Stephen's lap as the train made its way to the enemy base. Stephen gazed into her eyes firmly, and sighed warmly.

"If it weren't for you… I would've killed every single member of your family… and then you'd have absolutely no scales in your favor in this Armageddon. Thank you for finding me…"

"Don't mention it Stephen! If anything, I should be thanking-"

"No Sarah. You don't understand how much you've impacted my life. I realize that I've made so much of an influence already on you, but, if it weren't for you, the me as you know it wouldn't exist at all. Surely, if you had not found me, another lucky guy would've captured your fancy, but, either way… you've done much to me… you've given me a purpose beyond survival, Sarah."

"What do you mean?"

Stephen ran his hands up and down her sides rhythmically as he spoke. "Before I met you, all I cared about was escaping Damian. Beyond that, there was nothing. When I found you, I had something to work for, to tailor my life's meaning around. Your happiness is the greatest goal I could ever get Sarah, and I want to give you the happily ever after you deserve. That, and that alone, is why I won't fail at fending off everyone from GUN from this train."

Sarah took it in slowly, and let tears trickle down her face as she hugged him.

"Don't worry Sarah… it'll be alright. Everyone here will live. Everyone here will have a second chance. Everyone will be happy again. Everyone will stop running. I promise you this more than anything in the world."

"Stephen," Sylvia began, "Stephen, I don't mean to intrude but…"

"It is time for me to depart? To get my head start on the train?"

"Yes…" Sylvia said quietly, looking at the two and feeling guilty for separating them.

"Sarah, I love you." Stephen kissed her greatly, and then set her down on his command chair. "If the group needs speaking to, you're in charge of that right now, ok?"

"Be careful Stephen."

"I always am."

Stephen grabbed the sleek silver board behind his chair, and climbed the ladder on the side of the command center. Sarah couldn't help but notice the colors of the rainbow twinkling faintly behind the board.

The latch had opened a second after Sarah shouted back to Stephen, "I love you!"

Stephen nodded his head in acknowledgement, and jumped out of the train.

Mounting his board midair, he noted one thing before he burst forwards.

* * *

There were storm clouds billowing in the distance. Dark, ominous things that filled the sky with dread and fear; no doubt they would pour down upon the activities planned by Stephen.

A rainbow of color shot out from the holes behind his silver Extreme Gear as he darted over to GUN's main and primary base.

Stephen's board traveled upwards at a velocity unthinkable. Powered with some unlimited power, he made it to space at nearly the speed of light. A single asteroid orbiting in the planet from space was in his direct path.

"My precious little trump card…" he muttered, speeding through the base within on his Extreme Gear. Swiftly, he navigated his way to the old colony's control room to the cannon it was famous for, the Eclipse Cannon.

The core was dimly pulsating as Stephen entered the room, a red character stood awkwardly in front of a vast machine hooked up directly to the Cannon's Core itself.

"Hello K, how goes the charging?" Stephen asked sincerely.

The red, echidna-like thing jerked its way into facing Stephen and responded in the exact tone of Knuckles, "System charging complete and ready to fire at your command."

"And the Master Emerald?"

"Awaiting the Guardian's Chant."

"And has it worked so far?"

"The Master Emerald responds to my commands." It answered robotically.

K was a robotic duplicate of Knuckles, created with metal and coated heavily with the DNA of Knuckles himself. Built to sound, look, and register as Knuckles, there were only three major differences between K and Knuckles; flight, combat, and obedience. Knuckles listened only to himself, whereas K would obey Stephen's every command.

With the ARK at his command, Stephen smiled gaily.

"Hold on for a mere moment now, ok? I'm going to hook you up to the remote. When I press this button, execute the commands in your head.

"As you wish." K lowered his head as Stephen pulled a small tube from his neck.

A small section of the tube came off, as planned, and Stephen absorbed that tube into his skin for later use, but the rod continued, coming from K's spine. Once it extended to full length, it opened wide and formed a dish-like appearance, as if to receive a signal from something.

"Wait for my command, understood?" Stephen knew though, that at this point, K would not be disturbed by anything.

Grabbing his board, Stephen gave a final glance to the mechanics within the Core of the ARK. The Master Emerald had been fixated to a new machine, powering up the entire colony, and diverting nearly all of the power to the Eclipse Cannon. With the power of the Master Emerald, greater than the Seven Chaos Emeralds combined, the blast would be enough to destroy anything in its path.

It was Stephen's final trump card, a last ditch effort to finish the war.

Shivering at his decision to consider firing this doomsday machine, he mounted his board, and took off to the surface again.

* * *

Omen watched the radar in agitated anger. Blips of enemy units encroached on his position, the main base.

"What. Are. They. Doing." He growled in fury. His men cowered before his wrath. "Those damn animals are SURROUNDING US!"

It had happened in the course of about a minute. A long train of crude vehicles had appeared on their radar and rushed in and around the main base. Sure, GUN had plenty of weapons to blow them to bits within their walls, but, most of their energy was being placed on the not-yet-finished Chaos Extraction Device. It wasn't even close to done yet, and was still sapping the base of most of its power. They would have to rely on robotic sentries and manpower to fight them all off.

Then, another random blip appeared on the radar, coming from the sky.

"Switch to visual, what the hell is that? Is it a missile?"

The visual reading showed Damian's failed ULv2.0, AKA Stephen rushing in on a silver flying board. In his arm, he bore a giant white banner, devoid of detail. It was the sign of surrender.

As he stopped above the base, the rest of the vehicles around it stopped as well.

"What is he doing?" Omen sneered, looking at the image of Stephen hovering over his command center.

* * *

Stephen looked around him, making sure that his people were assembled. Faces in the windows looked worriedly at him as he sighed. His eyes locked once with the girl in the frontal cab, his girlfriend, and he cleared his throat.

"OMEN!" Roared he, "You have run us to extinction, through pain, misery, loss, and grief. Now, we stand before you, cornered, with no option seeming more promising than a frontal demand. We ask only for one thing. Peace."

* * *

Omen sputtered at the screen watching Stephen, "WHAT?! PEACE?"

This prattle roused the inactive XT from his state of lethargy, combined with the sound of Stephen in his sensors. The juggernaut of this age clanked his way over to the screen, viewing Stephen as he made his speech, white flag in hand.

Many members of the command station muttered at this statement. For the first time in a long while, they tempted their minds with the ticklish idea of peace.

* * *

"What say you, O commander of GUN, my most trivial foe? We've nowhere to go, nowhere to run, and you've drawn us out. Either set aside your misplaced quarrel with us, and attempt to negotiate peace on reasonable, civilized terms, or, we can do this the way you've wanted since this bloodshed started nearly more than four years ago." Stephen looked for some form of a reply, and then tried to continue. "I cannot make these people run for much longer. They are tired, weak, weary, and hopeless for the future. I guided them for 4 years through the sky struggling to survive and stay away from you, but you've found us out.

"I want peace, and I want promise of a future for my family and friends, what would you, any of you, do if you were in my situation? My father figure was killed in battle, my best friend and girlfriend has nearly committed suicide twice, I've seen good men die, and I've seen atrocities from you and your people that mark the blackest age in Human-Animal relations. What say you? I need an answer Omen. Will you help me form a new age for tired people? Or shall we fight to the death, until someone wins? Either way, the end is coming. WHAT SAY YOU OMEN? ANSWER ME DAMMIT!"

* * *

"Bleh! Its kan wies noch dal munchen kol! Et muts de'ich!" XT growled ferociously and stomped out of the command center. "Stephen!" He shouted in eerie articulation, "Long thou hath tempted me, and now, thou shalt be bested!" The sound of rockets filled the halls as XT stormed away.

"Omen! The robot is going to kill him!"

"Good riddance then! There is no reason to bring so much weaponry to a peaceful gathering! Stephen brought an army here to fight and die, and the latter wish shall be witnessed before the day is over. Damn animals… always so stupid. They thought they could trap me like that, trick me as if I were a fool. Ha! I'll show them the superiority of Mankind! We are supreme!" Omen cheered as he sat back in his chair. "All troops, open fire!"

* * *

The sound of marching came from the inside of the crate Stephen was hovering over as it began to rain.

Suddenly, a shaped roared from the inside of the base and hovered in front of Stephen with a wicked smile on its face.

"Fool. You come to be slaughtered like a pig to its butcher." XT enunciated like never before, malice filled his voice like a tainted evil.

"So that is Omen's decision. So be it."

XT threw a swift punch to Stephen, and sent him flying into the frontal train cab.

"GRRAAAAAAAAAGH!" XT howled violently as the people began to open their windows.

"NO!" The people in the trains screamed; horrified that their leader was struck like that.

"You damn monster!"

"GUN! YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!"

"And my kids!"

"My wife and daughter!"

"Can't you see that you are the monsters we are supposed to be?"

"Go away!"

"Leave us alone!"

Finally, some people from GUN came out of their bunkers below and began shooting upwards at them.

"They fire upon us!"

"GIVE THEM HELL! FOR ALL THE SHIT THEY'VE DONE TO US!"

"AAAAAAAAARGGH!" All of the animals in their cabs roared as they brought forth their arms they were provided and began to return fire.

* * *

"Stephen, get up, please…" Sarah chanted to the blob in the side of the wall.

Stephen had a dent in his chest, and from the jagged entry into the cab, his skin was cut, and wasn't healing as quickly as it normally did. A small pool of silver liquid came forth from his mass.

"I'm getting up…" Stephen muttered as he rose, wounds systematically vanishing in plain sight.

"Stephen… I didn't know… he was _that_ strong… are you sure we… Stephen?"

Sarah stopped to notice that Stephen had been looking her straight in the eyes as she spoke.

"Sarah…" Something appeared in Stephen's hand, a small pendant. It was Sarah's. "I love you honey… so much…"

Stephen kissed her passionately just before stepping into the hole he had created. The silver board hovered in front of him and began to glow.

Sarah was blown back onto Stephen's Command Chair as seven colored lights flew out of the silver Extreme Gear.

Slowly they began to orbit Stephen's body, picking up speed as they came closer to his skin. The moment the red jewel impacted his skin, a bizarre ripple appeared over Stephen's body, and he howled, almost in pain.

* * *

_Stephen's Point of View_

* * *

As I turned from kissing my beloved, I found my vessel of destruction waiting for me patiently. That Extreme Gear I concocted served a dual purpose. One was to get me to space quickly, and the other…

I expanded my extreme consciousness to the board, and it responded for me. The Seven Chaos Emeralds appeared, waiting to be used. Long had I waited this moment, and long have I feared it.

_Oh dear…_ I thought morbidly, _at the end of this… if I can't beat him… Oh Sarah… if only I listened to your ravings about God and Death and Heaven more closely…. What happens when you die? _A morbid chuckle overcame my mind as I thought of an epic song, fit to this scenario perfectly, _well, I guess the possibilities are never ending…_

The jewels orbited my body, and I felt their radioactive qualities too much to be comfortable. I focused on one thing, hoping to activate the transformation. Why was I doing this? Why was I about to go through a painful transformation and house the instability of a nuclear reaction within my chest? Sarah. She was more than worth the price.

The first Emerald plummeted into my frame, and my body began to shiver wildly. I felt the thing dissolve; its power was overwhelming within each system of my body. My eyes must've flashed red once as the radioactivity spread within me.

_OH FUCK! THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HURT SO- GAH! _A second one entered my body, the deep blue one, I think; my vision was beginning to fail me as the pain increased logarithmically.

I didn't just know what color it was, I _FELT_ it. I could feel the cool blue energy pouring itself into my body from my upper arm, the place of impact. It was no easy transition at all. Perhaps because I can absorb each Emerald's powers individually, by combining them as a super form isn't as strong as it would be for Sonic… _DOH!_

The purple Emerald found its way into my structure via my thigh. It was happening faster now; the other jewels slowly coming closer indicated an end to this madness.

I gripped my skull in pain, trying to beat myself up for considering such a painful process. Then Sarah came through my mind once more, and the pain was lessened, dramatically. She would be safe… she would be happy… she would live on to raise my family… to take care of Amy and help mend the world… All would be for the better-

_ACK!_ So much for using Sarah as a pain reliever…

I could _feel_ the power and speed of my body increase with the pain, once it settled, if it did, I reasoned that my abilities probably couldn't be matched. Perhaps by the end of this, due to my genetic structure, I will become stronger than Sonic or Shadow, or Sarah, Blaze, Tails, Knuckles of Silver… it was possible… I was nothing like any of them…

AHHH!

* * *

_Third Person Omniscient point of view._

* * *

Sarah watched in horror as the Stephen howled in pain. She couldn't see him, but flashes of light revealed a changing body, and a writing one.

The final gem vanished and the glow finally began to subside after about 47 seconds, but it was the longest 47 seconds of Sarah's life.

Stephen, or what used to be Stephen, arose from the mound he had shrunk into made of a bronze coloring. His skin was as sleek and smooth as metal, and looked tougher than diamonds, and more beautiful. His eyes changed color every moment, ranging from the colors of the Chaos Emeralds he had consumed.

He stood up, now roughly 5 feet tall, a giant among many animals, with one of his natural spikes missing. They all slanted in their normal way, but seemed slightly more rigid, unwilling to move from their gentle curve down, and they had been expanded slightly. A halo, hovering in a similar manner of a Chao's headpiece, could be seen faintly glowing over his head, giving him an angelic, yet earthly appearance.

His limbs looked considerably stronger, yet still lithe and concealed. And his wings, now finally spreading, had changed dramatically.

Once resembling a swan's elegant wingspan, now, Stephen's wings gleamed a metal appearance, strong yet composed of many feathers, and there wasn't a single pair, but three pairs of two, giving him a complete set of six wings.

Sarah looked at Stephen with awe and love.

Stephen turned to Sarah with a small smile on his face. "Sarah," his voice was composed of three different tones, only one being the one Sarah was familiar with, the other two, sounding oddly prophetic and ominous, "I am going to make everything right again."

Sarah cowered as Stephen leaned in, giving her a single kiss before departing through the window.

"Xavier," Stephen said in his new voice, "XT-421 of the Rinocian Empire, Self proclaimed healer of hearts and matchmaker, now corrupted and tainted with evil. O fallen angel, I am Stephen, and I was created to become this Seraph that you see here. You shall return to the hell from whence you came this day! En garde!" Stephen darted to XT with glorious speed, and the robot's reaction as Stephen came at him nearly the speed of light was priceless.

Shocked, XT failed at defending himself, and head took a smashing from Stephen's punch. In the down time it took for XT to recover, Stephen had grabbed the silver board he had used to travel to space and back, and warped the metal until it resembled a staff. As he held it, a shimmer appear all around the metal, as if magical.

The radiation from his body repelled the rain that was beginning to fall all around the base. It rung like music as it tapped XT's armor, and the robot scowled in disapproval at Stephen, and his newfound strength.

With a grunt, XT charged Stephen with a supersonic punch. Much to the robot's surprise, Stephen caught it in his hands, even though he started to move backwards in the air.

"That won't change a thing." XT muttered as he pushed harder, trying to shove Stephen into a wall. Stephen mentally forced himself forwards, trying to combat XT's exertion on him.

"Not today… I'm going to destroy you XT. I'll rip you to shreds for the things you've done so far."

"Ha! As if a mite like you could accomplish such a feat! You must face the wrath of the Demon to best me, for he is my father, and he gave me his strength to fend upstarts like you away from the Great General! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" XT thrust forwards, and pinned Stephen to the side of the crater.

The metal monster threw his head forwards, clanking against Stephen's metallic skull, and hesitated; it wasn't supposed to exert a repercussion like that.

"I am ULv2.0, greatest biological feat on this planet! I CANNOT LOSE!" Stephen pushed XT off of him and launched himself forwards, stabbing at him with his large metal staff.

XT retreated then, flipping backwards in the air and rocketing upwards. He pulled out from his chest a small handle. Tapping this once, a massive gun formed, its six barrels began spinning violently as XT took aim midair. Once the tubes were moving at a blurring speed, a stream of purple bolts shot from them angrily, darting through the air like laser beams. Stephen dodged each as he flew over to the ever-retreating XT.

A single bolt hit Stephen's arm, and he fell back, wincing and yelping at the sharp pain.

"Ha!" XT cheered as he focused more on aiming than fleeing, continuing the stream of energy fired.

Stephen fell from the sky then, pained and hurt.

His eyes opened just slightly as he fell to see a panicked Sarah fretting about him below. Immediately, the energy pained him no longer, and he reversed direction, determined to set things right.

XT was alarmed at this, and strapped his gun to his back. Diving from the sky, he charged Stephen breathing a corrosive acid from his throat. Stephen recoiled for a mere moment as XT tackled him back down out of the sky.

"Why do you even bother?" XT scoffed.

"Because!" Stephen coughed, "I care for them… they have to live! I won't give up, ever."

"I hope you're ready for a long battle then." XT declared as he threw Stephen away. For a moment, the super powered creation was flailing around, getting nowhere, but eventually he stabilized. "You say you care for them." XT noted aloud, "that was a big mistake."

Stephen closed his eyes in horror as XT extended each limb on his body. From every panel in his armor, small, inch long tubes appeared, all looking like very tiny missiles. Stephen knew from experience and lore than each tube on XT's body have the destructive force of a stick of dynamite.

Each tube straightened forwards, turning on their axels, and subsequently launched away from XT, some spiraled towards Stephen and others down to the train.

"DAMN IT!" Stephen dove for the missiles heading down first, Sarah _had_ to be protected.

XT laughed wickedly as he pulled out his laser rifle once more, and began to fire at Stephen, and successfully hit each time.

By this point, Stephen was pained and distressed, and a single thought came into his mind. _I can use Chaos Powers… right?_

"CHAOS CONTROL!" With that phrase uttered, time froze for a brief moment, and Stephen was allowed to recover his bearings.

He felt a surge of energy leave his body as he entered the frozen state of time, however, and warned himself to save energy for the future. Stephen flew at the some hundred thousand missiles flying about the sky, and took each one out with a small electrified tap of his staff. Frozen in place, the missiles could hardly explode.

Stephen flew up to XT thereafter, began charging a blast of Chaos for his face using his staff.

By the time time began to move again, XT was in the explosions of his missiles, and pummeled with Chaos Energy straight to the face, tinting it a darker hue.

* * *

Sarah watched in fretful horror as Stephen was battered and beaten by XT. If anyone should be out there, it should be her, risking her life for her beloved… but Stephen was stubborn, and was probably stronger than her. She didn't bother take a weapon to battle against the humans; she just watched the sky as the lights, one dark, one bright, dance through the sky.

Beneath the dancing lights, troops marched up from the center of the crater, either shooting or climbing. Many, though, watched the battle above. Because of this, many of the people were shot down, felled by the pain of impact.

* * *

"You will lose, and they will die." XT taunted, plunging spikes that protruded from his core into Stephen as he pinned him in the sky.

"AUGH!" Stephen cringed and sunk behind XT. Stephen kicked the metal creature away and then glared at him.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Stephen commanded, and a bolt of blue energy whapped an already stunned XT. "Why are you doing this XT? We used to be your friends!"

"A servant of the General has no need of friends. You lie." XT's eyes brightened in red hue and shot out at Stephen's chest. Stephen recoiled at the mild sting, but persisted.

"No XT! You were once a good person! A kind caring being who wanted to help flesh bearing creatures!"

"Bah! That is more a lie than saying that the General was a bad man!"

"He sure sounds like one to me…" Stephen murmured.

"GRAAAAAAARGH! NO ONE INSULTS THE GENERAL IN FRONT OF ME!" XT pulled out his gun and began blasting away at Stephen.

Stephen quickly flew out of the way, and continued to dodge the beams in a scattered fashion.

XT, upon realizing the futility of trying to hit Stephen, began charging the cannon for a larger blast, and targeted the frontal train car below, right through Sarah's skull.

"Bye bye baby!" XT chuckled as he pulled the trigger.

"SARAH NO!" Stephen roared, and extended his hand into the beam, burning it severely. He flew as fast as he could into the path of fire, and help both of his arms out to defend his beloved from the blast. He absorbed all of it, and fell down again.

"Bleh, he is a fool." XT dove to the frontal cab where Sarah was. He seemed to take a sadistic delight as Sarah trembled in fear. "You think your boyfriend is so pleasant? You think he's absorbed enough power from those rocks that he can stop me? Your brain's cerebral cortex must be flawed." XT grabbed Sarah off of the ground and picked her up, squeezing her neck.

"NO DAMN IT!" A voice growled from behind.

XT's grip tightened and tightened on Sarah's neck, until finally, Sarah's head began to turn colors from lack of oxygen and blood.

Suddenly, it stopped. XT's grip couldn't close any further. It wasn't Sarah's bone, it was something much tougher.

XT noticed faint trails of bronze leading up his arm and into his clawed hand, and immediately, he became infuriated. Diverting all the energy he could to his hand, he could not squeeze harder. He tried to move his other arm, but that too was immobilized. Stephen was restraining him on a molecular level, forcing his limbs to move against their will.

"Never will you harm her." A voice came from behind him. XT tried to turn his head, but his neck too was stuck in place.

Slowly, XT's grip began to loosen, and Sarah eventually fell to the floor, scrambling away gasping for breath.

"MY PREY!" XT growled.

"She is the last prey you'll ever try to claim you hunk of useless metal!"

Stephen threw XT backwards and began to trounce him like a dog would a stolen doll from a child's dollhouse.

"Never ever ever! NOT MY SARAH!"

"You fool." XT said in a clam voice, rocketing away before Stephen could land another punch. "I cannot be beaten, I was design with the sole purpose of not being defeated. Give up."

_I can no longer reason with him… but maybe I can dismantle him…_ "You gave me a reason to fight XT… long ago, when you loved love, you helped all of us love one another, and now you wish to rip us apart. I simply say no. You helped me and Sarah form a bond that kept us together through this tough time, and now, when she, and the bond we share, is threatened, by God I won't give in or lose. I will do all in my power and more to keep you at bay and destroy you, before you harm another. For my Sarah, for my would-be wife Sarah, for any kids I may have and the world they would live in, I would rather myself die with your defeat than let you live to harm more. By the power of God and love, XT-421, you will perish tonight!"

"Cut your religious banter, you'll need your breath for screaming as I tear out your lungs, and hers." The two charged each other once more, and shot upwards due to the slightest change in angle before impact.

* * *

Sarah sat on the ground watching Stephen and XT make their battle extend into space as they shot upwards.

"Sarah," Sylvia asked her sweetly, "Don't you think you should be helping him fight by shooting away at the humans coming up the hill?"

"I feel sick Sylvia… What if he gets hurt?"

"Sarah… I'm so sorry…" Sylvia sighed, and then blipped off of the screen.

Sarah sat baffled at this apology as she watched Stephen and XT battle it out amongst the stars above.

* * *

XT had been firing away at Stephen forever, it seemed. Stephen's imbued staff was capable of blocking every single shot, so, nothing touched either member of the battle.

"I've come to a sad conclusion XT." Stephen announced as he whacked the robotic combatant into a GUN satellite with his staff.

"Oh?" XT was undaunted at the destruction the crash caused.

"I can't really beat you." Stephen jammed his staff into XT's ribs and pried at his ribcage and trunk, trying to loosen something or break something, but all Stephen got was a massive shock in return.

"You've learned well." XT announced, running a clawed hand through Stephen's chest, drawing silver blood from within him.

"But I don't have to win to succeed, XT… I just have to have you lose." Stephen plunged his hand again into the chest of XT, trying to yank at his Arcanium heart. No dice. "I have to win… for Sarah…"

"What is it with you and this love? It is nothing more than a mere chemical reaction within a worthless piece of biomaterial such as yourself. Nothing but a delusion of desire and lust to trick oneself into mating and keeping said mate alive. Love does not exist! And there is no logic in the desire of the thought! Blasphemy; that is all you speak. Nothing more, nothing less. Be gone worthless meatsack!" XT grabbed at Stephen's face and began to rip and tear him, trying to sever the connection between brain and body. No dice there either.

Stephen did his best to fend him off, but ultimately charged outwards, towards the brightest light he could find in space.

The sun in which he neared hurt him greatly, but he hoped it would somehow weaken XT as well. The closer he got to the sun above, the hotter it got, and the more unbearable it became. In a final act, Stephen kicked XT towards the giant ball of flaming gas, and uttered a phrase, "Chaos Control!" Weakly said, it still did its job, and slowed time enough for him to escape the heat and appear back on Mobius.

* * *

The downpour of the rain had begun to cease, but while there, it cooled Stephen's heated body, and allowed him to relax. With any luck, XT was gone.

Stephen had been battling for over an hour now, and he had become very tired. Floating up to Sarah, he smiled at her once, reassuring her that he was ok and fine.

"Stephen… don't ever do that again… ok? I need you…" Sarah jumped up and hugged him tightly.

"Sarah…" He simply sighed and stared at her.

"You're… beautiful Stephen… I wish you could see yourself…"

"I know… I love you too Sarah." Stephen looked up to see a streaming streak of black and silver light shooting from the other side of the sun. "No way…"

"What?"

"He survived it…" Stephen groaned.

"Stephen?" Sarah noted the air getting thick with energy.

"Sarah… you once told me that I was a gift to the animals of Mobius from God… I believe you now… I have the power to stop him for good… and I know just how to do it. Sarah… I love you." He leaned in for another kiss and then floated off to the middle of the base, waiting for XT to charge him.

"Have at me you piece of scrap iron!" Stephen called to the light that was beaming towards him exponentially.

_BOOM_ The collision of XT and Stephen sent a blast wave of force rippling through the building above and below.

* * *

Omen stared at the two beings in his command station now dueling directly in front of him.

"So, you think you're the only one who can play dirty?" Stephen made a deft move out of the battle and grabbed Omen by the neck.

"ACK! WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Omen screamed.

"One move, and your _General_ perishes. I have no remorse or mercy in me for a man who caused so much hell for me."

"I swear Stephen, I'll change everything, I won't hurt you, just please don't kill me!"

"XT, deactivate, or the General dies."

XT stood there, contemplating.

Sweat dropped from Omen's face as XT just stood there thinking it all over.

"Deactivate." Stephen's face stayed unblinking for the longest time, staring XT down.

The moment his eyes closed to moisturize his eyes, XT demonstrated his supreme speed and accuracy. XT charged Stephen in that mere fraction of a second, and pinned him to the wall. As a first reaction, Stephen dropped Omen, and tried to defend himself. It was an instinct he could not have avoided.

"That's right! Kill him robot!" Omen cheered as he walked away from the battle cautiously.

Stephen heaved as XT through a high-energy fist into his stomach. He was tiring fast of this battle, and knew he couldn't keep it up for long.

XT's armor was partially melted from the sun exposure. He was weakened, tired, but ready to give up everything to protect the General, and complete his wishes of destroying Stephen once and for all.

Stephen grabbed the softened metal of XT's body and clenched onto him hard. Levitating, he hovered into the air, breaking through vast layers of the GUN base.

"It is time to end this you vile machine…" Stephen growled.

Stephen wrapped his limbs around XT's tightly, restraining any and all movement. With the Chaos Emeralds powering him, Stephen was able to will himself to fly, and therefore really didn't need his wings for anything beyond defense from XT. His arms and legs wrapped tightly around each limb of XT, locking him in a place in space relative to the planet.

His neck tensed around XT's as Stephen spread his limbs, opening any defense XT may have had. Then, the genetic experiment pulled out two things that had stayed in him since his transformation.

One was the small green pendant that Sarah had given him as a good luck charm. Nervously, he rubbed that between his free thumb and forefinger, breathing heavily.

In his other hand, he produced a long tube. Opening a flap on that tube, he revealed a glowing crimson button.

Tears flowing in his eyes, he watched in the sunset horizon as a distant rock in space turned on his position.

"Sarah… I love you…" He whispered as his thumb came down hard on the red button.

XT only now was able to fully comprehend the innards of Stephen's mind, and suddenly, his scowl turned to pure panic as he attempted to free himself. His efforts were all in vain. Stephen was not letting go or budging at all.

Slowly, in the very distance section of space, the small glowing of a green dot became larger and larger. This growth continued for about five seconds until finally the stored energy entered critical mass, from there, the green dot became a hellish line of jagged energy.

All Stephen and XT could see at this point was the color lime green. It encompassed both their bodies, and made them scream sounds no mortal person on Mobius had ever heard before.

Sarah watched silently as the green beam came down from the sky, from the Space Colony Ark and impacted her boyfriend. Feebly, her legs quivered as she thought desperately, _he's going to make it, he's going to make it, he's going to make it._ Despite the obvious truth that the cannon had been designed to be so powerful, it could destroy stars.

The last two things Sarah heard before the explosion were Stephen and XT screaming, and the calm, sad voice of Sylvia and Lucien, uttered the phrase "Chaos Matrices Enabled." A warm red light filled the train Sarah was on, and many of the humans on the ground below, the world began to contort under the new technology.

The moment the blast hit XT, Stephen's body expanded rapidly, encasing the blast with a strong, durable barrier. But, once the peak of the Eclipse Cannon's power impacted him, the blast seeped through his body.

The final battle was over just before th sun had set. For XT and Stephen, it would rise no more.

* * *

**We're not done yet...**


	23. Tying Knots

**I easily could have broken this up... but I'll be honest, I am very lazy. It is so close to getting done, and my emotions have been totally off the charts these past few months, I can't begin to organize my thoughts. It really doesn't help that on normal weekdays, I get MAYBE 10 minutes to myself, (with my computer, to open, oh let's say my story files, it takes around 5 minutes to load up the computer, and then an extra 3 to load the first program, after that it only takes about 10 seconds each. But either way, do the math, that is two minutes to write, and then I must go to bed.) I could break down my day, but I'd rather share a fanfiction than a story, so, without further ado, here you go, please enjoy (or don't, as it IS a tragedy after all...)**

**BE WARNED!! THIS CHAPTER IS VERY DIDACTIC! (I wish I shorted some of the monologues, but again, I'm too lazy to do so.)**

* * *

Tails let loose a sad sigh of relief. Another day went by, and his love for his lover remained perpetually tarnished. Leaning against the side of a pink-leaved tree, he recalled the events far too well.

"_Cosmo?" He had asked the moment he awoke._

_A whisper on the wind gave him a nearly inaudible reply, "Tails-san…"_

_He turned around rapidly to see nothing. All around him in all directions, there wasn't a person able to have responded._

_Tails recalled his steps, and remembered cuddling his wife closely as she howled in pain throughout the night. _We sat… here, _he recalled, befuddled. _Then where did she go? _In the place where he woke up, a giant tree stood. There, garbed in beautiful pink flower buds, the tree swayed calmly in the wind._

"_Cosmo? Where are you?"_

_No reply, save only the gentle caress of the wind._

"_Tails-san…" The reply came slower than before._

_Tails ran around the forest in a state of panic. Searching for a trace of his beloved._

_No matter how long and hard he searched, he always came back to that pink-leaved tree with desperation on his face._

"_Tails-san…" The whisper came yet again._

"_WHO IS SAYING THAT?" Tails demanded, frustrated and worried._

"_Tails-san…" The faint reply poured soothing warmth into his body._

"_Co-Cosmo?" He asked, a wretched idea in his mind as he looked at the tree._

"_Tails-san…" It responded once more, warmly and openly as the wind allowed._

"_Cosmo… no… not a… no… no… NO!" Tails kicked the dirt in fury and anguish. The events prior to Cosmo's event may have happened._

If she rapidly matured that night… then… this is her final stage of development… a great and beautiful tree… it did have pink leaves on it last time… oh Cosmo… if only you could hear how much I miss you…

"_Tails-san…" Cosmo's wind-sung voice came into the foxes ears yet again._

"_I'm not going to leave your side Cosmo… never… I love you." Tails grabbed the bark of the tree and began to let his eyes water ever so slightly._

"_Tails-san…" The voice of Cosmo comforted him through the wind, and Tails fell into a dreary sleep, his consciousness seeming to meld with Cosmo's earthbound soul._

It had been a few weeks, but time had no meaning. Tails still wasn't sure, logically, that it was in fact Cosmo, but it seemed highly probable, and his heart told him that the branches on which he had been sleeping were in fact the new arms of his beloved wife. This comforted him. No matter what form she took, Cosmo would be his lovely wife, and he would uphold that bond with every ounce of his being. Sex wasn't important, neither was kissing, or hugging, or hand holding, just being together, and sharing their love was all the fox needed to be happy in life.

One day, way away, Tails would decide to leave her and build a house next to her, and live as close as he could to her at all times, but, now was not that time. Presently, he just needed to be with her. That was all that mattered to him.

* * *

The Mayor of Station Square walked outside his large home in the city to the sound of a bomb going off followed shortly after by a prolonged scream.

_What in the name of God is this- whoa…?_ He, along with about a few hundred others viewed a peculiar sight.

In their streets of Station Square, a large vessel had landed. Mostly perfectly upright, yet crooked at the links that connected it together, the train-like vessel had someone crashed perfectly in the center of Station Square.

The few windows inside gave proof to the inhabitants: animals.

Already, people with some mob weapons had appeared; ready to act as a militia need be.

* * *

Amy stood in the window, holding onto the sill tightly, as to not fall through the warping process. _Did Stephen just…? No… no… no… he… he killed himself to kill XT… Oh no… _"Sarah!" Her first concern became a priority as she rushed to the front of the train.

Nauseous people leaned in the now crooked train and sat down, fatigued and worried about the explosion they just saw engulf their leader. Many held hands to ensure that their lover was safe, that something in the world hadn't gone awry.

Amy burst through the front door in a frenzy. On the main computer, still fully operating, the avatars on Sylvia and Lucien mournfully viewed through satellite the damage over the GUN base. A crater, nearly a mile wide, had replaced the base on the face of Mobius.

"Mission…" Sylvia turned to Lucien worriedly, tears in her digital eyes.

"Complete." Lucien grudgingly finished, trying to maintain a composure, but obviously disturbed.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Amy growled furiously. "DID YOU UNLEASH THAT BLAST?"

"No Ma'am. Master Stephen knew we were incapable of killing him. He had the trigger with him since…"

"Just shut up Lucien." Sylvia interrupted, still letting her digital eyes water. "Let her be mad."

"But we are not to blame! You know as well as I do that he entrusted only himself with the final blow!"

"Amy… my brother is… as upset as I am… just… let us explain… we are some of the last direct links to Stephen anymore… he gave us special missions for after this… act was complete… we have with us films that Stephen made in the past, when he began to detail this last resort mission… and we'll reveal them with you as well as the audience he intended to have with each message. His planning is… was… beyond belief. He has a special message for you…" Sylvia turned to Sarah, and stopped. Sarah had not stopped looking out the window, mumbling, praying, wishing, since she saw the blast not more than two minutes ago.

"Oh no…" Amy whispered. "Sarah?" She walked closer to her daughter, still praying on her knees begging forgiveness and for her boyfriend's safe return into her arms.

Amy tapped back and pulled her close to her. In an instant, Sarah lunged at her mother and hugged her ferociously. "Mommy… Did that just happen? Please tell me that didn't just happen! Please oh Please oh please! I don't want him to… St-Stephen…" Sarah began to wail in sadness as her grip nearly paralyzed Amy.

Amy could not bring Stephen back. She could not bring back her husband and her daughter's father. She could not give back the nearly five years of her life that Sarah had spent in brutal war and hiding. She could not even promise her that her future was going to last much longer, as they had lost their greatest leader for the war. But she could hug her. She could hug her and show her she felt her pain. And she did this with as much passion as she could.

The clanging of wood on metal broke the two up.

"Hey! Get out of our town you filthy animals!" Someone said.

That was just enough to set Amy over the edge. The clanging was right on their door, and Amy knew just what to do. Grabbing a piece of white fabric, she bit it, and climbed up the ladder in the control room, leaving Sarah to weep her eyes out on the floor.

As she exited through the hatch, she noted a burning antenna atop each cab in the train; this queer fact was the first thing she noticed. The next thing was the mob of people- nay humans, around the train.

Waving her white cloth, she caught their attention.

"Listen up!" She yelled above the crowd, sad yet angry, "We've been through a lot! We mean you no harm, none at all! Just… let us cope… ok? We just won a terrible battle… a terrible battle at a terrible price."

"Why shouldn't we just kill you?"

"WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO YOU?!" Amy roared at the ungrateful pink-fleshed creature who dared ask that question.

The crowd of nearly a thousand grew dead silent.

"WHAT HAVE WE EVER DONE TO YOU?! Through our technology, mostly pioneered by Miles Prower, you live your lives efficiently, and without an overly harmful touch on the environment! With our age-old knowledge of the land, we could produce bountiful harvests in quantities you yourselves could never master in eons of natural connectivity! Sure, there were some of us who hurt you, but after killing us, how significantly did those numbers drop? I doubt they did much… there will ALWAYS be bad people in a society, Man OR Beast! What did** I** ever do to you? What did Stephen ever do to you? I've never killed a human before, and I'd hang myself if I ever did. Life is precious, and should be valued at all times.

"Just give us some time to cope with our losses… and we'll see what we can do…" Amy through the white handkerchief into the crowd, and walked down the ladder.

Most of the crowd dissipated back into their houses, while others stayed, suspicious of the animals that had just invaded "animal-free" Station Square.

* * *

"OH MY GOD!" Luna screamed again. She had stayed bed ridden the whole time. A capsule had formed over her bed so that Brian could open the window and shoot. Even now, as the room entered locked down and began cleaning itself, Brian lay on the ground in shock.

"So that's… that's why he wouldn't tell me…" He held his face in horror as he recalled the shape of Stephen disintegrate within the massive green blast of the Eclipse Cannon.

"Brian… is… is he gone for good?"

"That was the Eclipse Cannon Luna… it was designed with the ability to destroy stars… the fact that the planet survived an attack like that is astounding… don't hold your breath for it though… Stephen… it is likely there isn't even a speck of him in space anymore…" Brian coldly got up off the ground and placed a hand on Luna's shield, protecting her from the dangers of the world.

He didn't need to say anything to convey his worry and love for her.

* * *

When Amy came down the stairs, Sarah was sitting in Stephen's chair in fetal position, shaking a little bit.

"Sarah, get some sleep, ok? We have something important to show you… but…" Sylvia's voice quavered.

"We need you in a more calm state of mind, which, at present, you are not in." Lucien promptly shut up after that.

"Time…" Sarah cried out weakly, "I need time… time and Stephen…" The tears only pooled on the ground beneath her.

"As he said…" Sylvia sighed, and let Sarah calm down as they entered a digital conversation with one another.

"Do you think we should play them yet?" Sylvia inquired.

"Well, Stephen wanted his broadcast announced over the world first… we should get the radio…" Lucien responded.

"Aye… so… just play it?"

"Play it worldwide."

"We need to use another one of Stephen's False Emeralds to do that, right?"

"That we do."

Silently, the two began to harvest some of the energies from the remaining emeralds, and began to play the last radio broadcast of Stephen's radio show.

* * *

Amy passed into another cabin as she heard the voice of her daughter's favorite radio DJ speak, muffled yet obvious, over the radio.

_This might cheer her up! Aha!_ Amy grabbed the device in the mostly empty room, and rushed off to the frontal cab with the box in her hands.

"Sarah! I have something that might brighten your mood," she spoke somewhat gleeful as she placed the radio down of the ground.

"STEPHEN!!!" Sarah wailed as she listened to the voice of StDJ on the radio.

"No, honey, that's not Stephen… that's your DJ you like!"

"… Yeah, I'm back again everyone… sorry for the long wait for any news from me, but, well, I've got a secret to tell all of you, and it ain't easy for me to say, or y'all to hear."

Amy listened in disbelief as the words came from the radio.

"My name, my real name, is Stephen, and this is not my real voice. I am your, the world's, favorite DJ, I've hacked into the net and found statistics everywhere. There is hardly a single place in the world that you can't hear my awesome music. And the thing that makes this all the more beautiful to me, is that, while most of you are humans, sitting at your desks or beds, listening to my music whimsically, thinking pleasant thoughts, I myself am no human. I, in fact, and the main leader in the animal 'resistance' as you call it. Cute how that works, right? Yet, regardless of my inhumanness, and my apparent lack in character and worth to human eyes, I, a non-human creature, made it to the top ranks of the world's radio broadcasting.

"I have seen good people die only because they were animals, and usually nothing more than holding a weapon out of fear. By the time you hear this recorded message of mine… I will already be dead… killed by acts that will be disclosed to the world at a later hour. Until then, please tune in and stay tuned, for I want to do one final thing right, before I can do no more…"

Amy's ears twitched as Sarah sighed hopelessly as the tears continued to flow from her eyes.

"Yeah mom… I knew… he showed me his studio in his room. Stephen is StDJ… Stephen the Disk Jockey. I mean… Stephen… was…" Her frame vibrated with tremors as the realization of the scenario tried to settle within her again.

"I'm sorry Sarah… I didn't…"

"It's ok mom…" Sarah shivered.

* * *

The Mayor of Station Square looked at the crowd, perplexed. _Should I be against these animals? Or for them? GUN impounds anyone whom they think supports animals, so I should just call them up… but… no, I can't be ignorant to a group of animals APPEARING in my city…_

Grabbing the phone, he dialed GUN quickly.

"We're sorry, the number you dialed could not be reached, please hang up and try again." The melodic voice of a fake operator spoke into his ear.

"Wait a damn minute… GUN doesn't answer their phones? Since when?! They're always itching for a fight…" He dialed another number.

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is the Mayor of Station Square speaking, can you go to the GUN headquarters in the basin to the east and inform them that animals are in my city."

"Um, sir, with all due respect, we've already sent out for GUN before, they're gone. All of their people had been called to the base due to a threat of animal attack, and now the base is simply gone. All that remains is a crater. Nearly all GUN agents are missing."

"WHAT?! Su-surely you must be joking!"

"I'm sorry… I've had to tell this to quite a few people calling in for GUN assistance… we're only delivery boys here at the Postal service…"

"I… I guess I'll call you later then… bye." The Mayor hung the phone up and began to pace around his room frantically.

_GUN is gone… oh no… those animals… well… hmmmmmmm… THEY may have the answers I am looking for._

Grabbing his coat, he began to scribble a note for his wife and kids, telling them where he'd be. The moment that note was posted on the refrigerator, he marched out of the room and into the dusky streets where the animals strand of vehicles landed.

* * *

Amy heard a few knocks on the side of the door leading to the human's streets.

"Hello, this is the Mayor; can I talk to your leader for a moment? I need to ask him a lot of questions right now."

Amy's eyes glistened for a moment, and then she responded, "We had a leader… he's no longer with us anymore…" Amy's voice quavered faintly.

Nothing came from the other end for some time. "Can I please come in? I don't want to hurt you, I just want some answers, if you can grace me those without hurting me."

"WE DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!" Amy growled stomping over to the door. "When are you dumb humans going to get that?" Amy widened the door to the frontal cab in fury. "No get in here before more agitated humans come pouncing at our windows."

The Mayor viewed the inner cab with wonder and awe. The animal's technology had far surpassed GUN in the past years. Cobalt blue everywhere, the metal plates inside the cab shone beautifully, however slapdash their arrangement may have been.

"You say you had a leader?"

"Hold on… let me get you a chair…" The pink hedgehog sighed with agitation disappearing into the cabs in back.

The Mayor looked to his side to see a teenaged blue hedgehog with a mechanical arm, crying in the corner. She looked oddly familiar, like he had known her from somewhere.

"Here you go, you may want to sit. And Sarah, the Mayor and I will be talking a lot about Stephen, so you might want to get out of here."

"No mom, I'm not moving from his cabin… ever." The hedgehog responded with resilience.

"As you wish…"

"Stephen? Was he capable of shape shifting? Called himself the Deviant?"

"You know him?" the pink hedgehog asked curiously.

"Yeah… he came by our Town Hall the other day… telling me, us, that a lot was going to happen in the next few days… is your appearance what he meant?"

"Probably… he never told us anything… only what he needed to… I think he planned so far ahead into the future… that boy was a damn smart genius… he built all of this, and was Miles Tails Prower's superior. Assuming you remember that wise kitsune…"

"I do… Miles was a great engineer… Stephen surpassed him?"

"He designed, with the help of Tails, ways to keep our base afloat and undetected for 4 years… I think that's some genius right there… but… well, I'll cut to the facts. Earlier today… Stephen sent us out from our crashed base in the train he had us build. He told us we were going to make a final stand against GUN, asking for peace, and if they ignored us, we'd die destroying them."

"And you succeeded?"

"No. I don't think anyone is a winner today." Amy stated with sorrow.

"GUN killed Stephen, didn't they?"

"No. I don't think they could've if they tried. Stephen was capable of using the Chaos Emeralds, and he used them to combat XT-421, an alien friend of ours that GUN somehow corrupted and twisted into a minion to eradicate us. You have to understand though; XT is a godly force to be reckoned with. Before GUN, he was capable of traversing time and space, altruistically helping those on worlds we can't imagine… Something happened to him, and he became evil with GUN… he was our friend, and he tried to obliterate us."

"And this XT killed Stephen?"

"No, once again… Stephen battled XT with the Chaos Emeralds, and couldn't win, so he… he took XT up in the air, and somehow got this green beam from the sky to shoot him, it ALMOST looked like the ARK shot it, but, it didn't have any power… it'd been shut down for years…"

"So… Stephen… killed himself?"

"For the lives of all of us, he let himself die with XT. Chances are, GUN is coming to kill us now, now that we've destroyed their main weapon."

"GUN is gone. 93 percent of their members are missing."

"Maybe that… maybe that blast blew them up? I don't know… he never told us anything…"

"I tried to call them, and they didn't answer. I am forced by law to report you."

"Then just do it God Damn it! End our suffering!" The hedgehog began crying as she looked at the human in front of her. "I've lost so much… we've all lost dear things to us… my husband was taken not more than a few weeks ago, remember Sonic? Sonic the Hedgehog? Yeah, I watched as a GUN agent shot a bullet through his head! I LOVED HIM! Sarah, my daughter, was dating Stephen, our great leader… now he's gone too… we've had so many casualties… it is so… so painful…"

"You want me to kill you?"

"I'd love to live, but this is not a life worth living. Running, fearing, worrying, losing. It is not life… it is a living hell."

"I understand… I must admit though… this is a lot to mull around in my head… if GUN is gone, and I don't have to call them by law anymore… I might, MIGHT, let you leave without killing you. I'm not sure yet though… we've… got a lot of talking to do in the future."

"Thanks… I guess."

"I'll sleep on it, and perhaps talk to you tomorrow. I won't hurt you, if you won't hurt us though, until we settle this little issue of GUN vanishing."

"I swear, we won't lay a finger on you if you just leave us be…" she promised.

"Very well then. I'll speak with you tomorrow then… uh… miss, I've not caught your name."

"Amy, sir. Amy Rose."

His eyes widened at her changed appearance. "My apologies Ms. Rose… I'd just forgotten what you looked like. I must be going then."

"Please do." Amy glared, untrusting.

The Mayor hastily left the room and exited the craft.

* * *

The people let loose a synchronized breath of air as their mayor left the rebels' ships. As he faced them, he was silent until they died down, and then spoke.

"People, please leave, they mean us no harm. Tomorrow, it would seem, their intentions will be made clearer. Let us wait until tomorrow."

Many of the people dissipated into the crowd, yet a good few stayed warily, unsure of these animals in their town. Angrily, they grumbled and readied themselves to camp out for the night. If the animals were to be slaughtered, they were trying to make sure they were the ones to do it.

* * *

In the frontal cabin, Amy yawned. With much of the train put to sleep, Sarah and Amy remained two of the only people onboard awake enough to execute proper conversation.

"Sarah, I'm going to bed. I'd advise you to do the same, but, if you can't sleep, that is perfectly understandable. If you need someone to hug tonight, my bed's right here. The way I see it, tomorrow can only be better, right?"

Sarah curled up in a ball sighing heavily with sorrow and agony, "no shit," she replied before closing her eyes into a nightmarish sleep.

Under normal circumstances, Amy would've scolded her daughter for such foul language, but, these were far from normal circumstances. Sighing in a similar fashion, Amy drifted off into a mournful slumber.

* * *

People and their arguing awoke Sarah from her dreary state of dreaming.

"No! The people will riot if you stay here much longer!" The Mayor protested to someone's claim.

"Listen, we're hungry and tired, the least you can do is help us obtain some food! We'll work for it if we must, but we are all very hungry, and have limited supplies on this craft." Sarah's mother responded.

"Mom, I was actually asleep…" Sarah grumbled.

"Sorry honey… this man though, he won't let us get food in his stores, unless we are leaving."

"Then let's leave, humans are bad at treating us properly anyways…" Sarah turned onto her side and grumbled some more.

"Stephen did not plan for this much to happen," Sylvia commented, "he assumed that the message would've been played yesterday, rather than today…" Sarah winced at the statement of her boyfr- ex-boyfriend's name.

"Please, just some food!" Amy begged, knowing the people in back would not have a lunch if she couldn't convince this ignorant human of their need.

"I don't know…"

To themselves, the artificial life forms within the computer conversed with each other through code.

"Sylvia, do you see reason to show the films now?"

"Yeah, I think that if they see them… they'll shut up and be friends again… or at least… close enough to it."

"Agreed. By your command, little sister. Play the tapes." Lucien bowed, letting Sylvia take command of the emotional tapes.

"Uh, excuse me? I think that now would be a good time for Lucien and I to show you guys Stephen's final words. He wanted us to share with everyone… well… portions of it are to be shared later, but… that is aside the point. Right now, we are linked to all of the television sets in the world, probably, and you guys will view it through our monitor, ok?"

The group became silent as an image flickered onto the screen. Stephen, seemingly back from the dead, stared at them through the digital board.

"Hey Sarah… Amy, Tails, everyone… um…" Stephen gulped, "due to my recent failures at keeping you safe, and preventing casualties, I have admitted a self-defeat. I can't stop XT. I can't keep you safe from him. When I said that Super Sonic had a chance to defeat him, I mean it, but I was very skeptical. You see… Sonic, no matter how much of a hero he was, was getting old, and I did the math over and over again, the chances of him to survive the Chaos Transformation were about a 72 percent chance. I said what I said to give you hope, but in reality, I kept little for myself. These past few weeks have been nightmares for me, and with Sonic's death fresh in my mind, I've run dry as to ideas to keep you safe, let alone wait out the war or end it.

"However… not more than an hour ago, I came up with a great and almighty plan. There is a single force still in existence that can destroy XT-421 for good!" Stephen's face tried to brighten up, "The Eclipse Cannon, aboard the ARK, Tails will remember it I'm sure, and Amy, and many of the older generations. Famed for destroying the Black Comet, and almost destroying this planet, the Eclipse Cannon has enough fire power to destroy XT and destroy GUN's primary weapon against you, my faithful followers. However… I encountered a problem, a big problem. XT is a hard enough target to hit with a bullet, of this I am sure. How could I hit him with that cannon? It would be like trying to kill a fly by hitting a pebble to smash it by throwing another pebble. Borderline impossible. And what happens if I miss? Oh, the world blows up, nothing big, right?" Stephen began sweating a little bit. "Also, if it is more than enough firepower to shatter his defenses and rip him to pieces; it will do that anyways, with the full power of the Chaos Emeralds powering it.

"Thus, I have settled on a final plan. I've calculated all of the probabilities, and I am 97 percent positive that this will work perfectly. In order to spare the world the possibility of being destroyed, a large, stretchy, blast resistant blanket must be in place. I myself am a large, stretchy, blast resistant blanket. But, the blast of the Eclipse Cannon would mutilate me like no other… so, in order to properly do this, I must utilize the power of the Seven Chaos Emeralds, and fill Sonic's place as the Super Form. I don't think I could beat XT, but I will try my hardest to do so, in any vain attempt to prevent my nearly fool-proof backup plan from ever occurring.

"In order to power the Eclipse Cannon, I will instead use the Master Emerald, this will mean I must steal the jewel from Knuckles, and likewise steal his DNA to make the gem function for me… I guess I'll have to build a robot to do the same thing… no living creature could shoot at me with that cannon, and I'd rather it be myself than anyone else, no one to but blame on." Stephen's eyes began to water ever so slightly. "Either way, when that time comes, well, I guess the only way you'd get this message is that the plan went accordingly…

"The plan not only went accordingly, but, I will have held XT down and let the blast of the Eclipse Cannon consume the both of us, thus eradicating both of our lives from the face of the planet." Stephen spoke with the utmost calmness up until this point.

He stared blankly at the camera, and through that, his global audience, and his lower lip trembled exponentially. Tears spilled onto his cheeks as he began to cry.

"Oh God… I don't want to die…" He closed his eyes and turned around for a moment, wiping his tears from his face in what little privacy he allotted himself.

At this point in time, Sarah was sobbing once more, along with many people in the room. They cried not for Stephen's absence, but for his bravery, and newfound mortality. He was not some inhuman, unfeeling creature, he had fears like everyone else, and this sudden mortality scared not only himself, but his previous followers.

"I know, I never cry in front of anyone other than Sarah… but presently, I am alone in my room. Hopefully I'll succeed so that this will never have to come to light," he chuckled, shaken, "or at least if I do indeed... die, then at least I won't be around to have to explain myself.

"To those whom my death will mean more than a noble sacrifice, Sarah… Amy… Tails… my closest friends, my would-be family… no matter where I am when you here this message, I love you all very much. And to the rest of the world… the likes of which ought to be watching this message, make note of that Sylvia and Lucien, here this: We animals have meant you no harm, especially this group of brave men and women. They have fought, yes, but only when attacked. They have stolen, but only when starving and in dire need of food, water, or other necessary condiments. Can you say you are so much better, humans? They mean you no harm. If you accept them into your society, or at least, excuse my double negative, don't not accept them into your society, then perhaps people like Sonic… and me… won't have to die anymore. We only ever wanted peace, our share of life to call pleasantly ours. Can you deny these troopers that? If you can, then you have no right to call yourselves humans." Stephen frowned at the camera, then relaxed, and leaned back into his chair.

"I'm not sure if I've anything else to say… I mean… sure… I'd love to record my every thought and emotion down on film while I'm still alive… but… I don't know where to begin, nor do I feel that that would be appropriate on international television… I wish… I wish I had a future with Sarah-"

Stephen stopped cold in his thought, and again the tears began flowing on his face. "I… I know exactly what I must do… Sylvia, Lucien, if I'm to record anymore, it won't be tonight. This concludes my letter to the world, at least, for now." Stephen placed a hand over the screen, and it fizzled into static.

"Sarah," Sylvia began calmly, "Stephen addressed this next one solely to you… everyone else, please leave the room, ok?"

"Wait, why is this-" The Mayor began, stopped short by Amy's glowering.

"We leave, right now." Amy grabbed him and pulled the human into the back quarters, emptying the room of its people save only the broken girl, Sarah.

"Ok, so…" Sarah wiped her tears, "what did you want to tell me Stephen?" She asked as if he were to answer.

"Here it goes…" Sylvia whispered, the tape playing in the small room.

"Sarah, God I wish I were there, holding you… I know I can't… the only way you're hearing this message is if I've died. I know this is hard for you. I really do. Over the past few days I've had to say my… my farewells to everything I've held close and dear, and it is breaking me apart, I'll be honest." Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke, yet he smiled from his chair and looked straight at the camera, as if to focus on Sarah's face.

"Sarah, I love you very much, and what I plan to do, or in your case, have already done, was done for you. I want you to have a future. I want you to live, to love, to be happy, to have a chance at happiness. Nothing could please me more than for you to pursue this, even if I can't be there with you.

"But, there is something that must be told to you… for me, it was about 2 days ago that we had our night… I know you know of what I speak… that magical moment between us where we weren't Sarah and Stephen, we were a single being. I am not lying when I say it, that was the most wonderful moment of my life. I wish so badly that in the future we would've been able to do that for as long as we both lived… but… alas… fate has different plans for us. And fate has an interesting plan for you. Sarah, right now, I know you feel as if you have no purpose to live, that I am gone from this world, and the only way to be happy is to die and be with me, if that heaven of yours really does exist, that is. Now what I am about to say will shock you, but it is true. I am not fully gone. A part of me lives on within you, figuratively, and physically. Sarah, machines can't fully detect it yet, but yes, you are pregnant." Stephen let loose a shaky sigh as he said it. Sarah just looked down, wide eyed and held her belly.

"My greatest fear is that you'll be mad at me… but I'm sure, so sure, that you'd want to raise a child… even if it is not with me, I will always be there, 50 percent of that child. I made sure of it Sarah. I know you're pregnant. That is why I insisted on taking you by surprise, that is why I ran you as long as I did; I made it impossible for a child NOT to have been conceived. I know it is cruel, to place you without a husband, without a boyfriend, without a father into the world with an unborn baby, but, I have created some shells for Sylvia and Lucien, and they will do their best to help you bear this burden, they will be the nannies you might need."

"As for naming it, I don't know. I am personally hoping it is a girl so that another object of beauty such as yourself enters the world, and I would love to name my daughter, how weird it is to say that," Stephen shivered, "I'd name her, it is such an odd name, yet I am so insistent on it… Xena. It sounds like the name of a trooper, and if she is anything like either of us, she'd be a great fighter. If it is a girl, I'd really, really like that name. But, if it does not suit you… I am here, and you are there, so I wouldn't be able to tell the difference," Stephen made a light chuckle. "And don't doubt yourself… you are a wonderful woman, and I mean woman, not girl, worthy of the praise of the entire world. I don't doubt for a moment your ability to raise a child."

Stephen fumbled with his fingers for a moment and pulled forth a small ring, gold and warm.

"Then there brings up another curious question… I don't know about you… but we made one foolish mistake in having this kid… I really want to preach it to people to only have kids when they're married… so… Oh, Sylvia, Lucien, help me if I have to send this, ok? I can't really ask this question… it is so improper… if you are viewing this, that means I am dead. I want to be true to my word, and I don't want to propose to you until the time is right, but yes, I, at this moment in my time, want to marry you. If I make it out of the war alive, again, if you're viewing this, I haven't, then I would drop to my knee and ask you myself. Either way… consider it my promise to you, there would be no one else for me, in life or death, and though I don't expect the same out of you, I want you to be happy no matter what, and if that means going out and courting another figure, so be it, just… oh dear…" Stephen stammered for words, uncertainty was never his style, "I have this band in my hand now, where it will be when you see this, I don't know, but please take it. Wear it. Have pride in it. It is a really crappy ring; really, I didn't make anything ultra special on it, it is just a plain, gold band. But please, for me, no matter who you date, wear this. Wear this, and know that wherever I am, I love you."

Sarah watched as a small slot on the digital panel shot out, a small ring sat on it. _The_ ring was glimmering gently in the darkness, and Sarah picked it up, tears in her eyes.

"Stephen… I miss you…" Sarah whimpered, placing the ring upon her ring finger.

"Sarah, I know it will be hard… I really do… I know that, it is possible that you love me more than I love you… I mean… I may be planning to die for your future… but oh I have no idea how far you'd go to keep me alive… that is one of my main reasons for preventing you from going super… it needed to be me, ok? Please… no matter how angry you get at me, or how upset you are, know that I alone planned this, and I alone executed it. Sylvia and Lucien are too mushy to pull it off." Another false chuckle from the recorded Stephen, and Sarah winced at his laughter.

"Fight on Sarah… I know that I've only cripple the war, you must finish it. Do it for us. Our child… and that little baby's future. I love you Sarah, don't you forget it." Stephen leaned forward and kissed the screen, leaving a mark on it. "Oh crap, I'm going to have to clean that…" He began wiping as the camera fizzled to black and white static.

Sarah rubbed her belly, looking down. "He… he doesn't lie… not about big things… Lucien, Sylvia, can you confirm what he said?"

"We helped him create the sperm in which he inseminated you with, of course Mistress Sarah." Lucien coolly responded; Sylvia hit him.

Sarah chuckled. "He lives on within me… if it is a boy…" Sarah's face began to glow, however dimly, through her sorrow.

"He couldn't go without a goodbye… that's why he gave us these tapes." Sylvia nodded.

"He made sure to console the world after his passing. Master Stephen was the bravest man I've ever met." Lucien added.

"He did what was right… I have to accept that… for me… for us… for… that little nub in my belly." Sarah muttered thoughtfully.

The voice of Stephen whispered throughout the cabin. Digital or not, it sent chills down Sarah's spine. "The hardest thing to do is to say goodbye to your loved ones with the knowledge of never seeing them again."

Sarah nodded mournfully. "Oh Stephen…" Sarah cried as she fiddled with Stephen's ring on her finger.

If Sylvia and Lucien had anymore tapes to share, they weren't revealing them at this moment.

* * *

Amy knocked on the door after 20 or so minutes had elapsed. When nothing responded, she creaked the door open to see Sarah sitting daintily on Stephen's command chair twiddling a ring around, her expression changing from partial gladness to drastic sadness.

"Hey mom." Her voice was heavy, and other than her voice she made no effort to look at her mother or the people behind her. She sat in the chair, content with twirling the gold ring around in her fingers.

"Are you ok sweetie? You've been in here for a long time. What did Stephen have to tell you?"

"I've been thinking…" Sarah looked up, "you know, thinking about what Stephen did…"

"I'm sure he had our best interests in mind."

"Oh mom…" Sarah stopped with the ring and locked eyes with her mother, "you have no idea…"

* * *

The mayor left the cabin worriedly. He didn't know what to think. The animals wanted peace, but who was he to say the deserved it? He felt, deep down, that their stories _did_ hold water, and should be believed, but he couldn't see how he, and with him, the entire human race on Mobius, could have been deceived so easily. Furthermore, he had no idea how to ask his people of his town to agree to let the animals stay and live amongst the humans as equals. It was too much change too fast.

Either way, if he didn't try, Amy would be furious with him, and knew what she had done to Sonic and her _friends_, even, when they upset her.

"People of Station Square." He announced upon exiting the cabin, "they mean us no harm, and wish to live amongst us in peace!"

A few in the crowd shifted uneasily with this statement, while others held out their weapons and cried in outrage.

"They'll have us gutted in our sleep!" said one.

"I know but-" The Mayor began, choosing his words unwisely.

"THEN WHAT ARE WE DOING LETTING THME LIVE PEACEFULLY WITH US!?"

"YEAH?!!" many began to angrily growl like wild animals at this notion.

_Well, I tried…_ The Mayor sighed dejectedly.

In no time at all, an angry mod had formed and began to clang their weapons on the sides of the train, trying to bash their way in.

* * *

"What in the hell is that?" Amy cursed, looking out of the windows, seeing the angry people.

Amy gritted her teeth and tried to restrain herself.

"Of all the insanities- what the _fuck_ was that Mayor up to?! WE ONLY NEEDED SOME FOOD!"

The chanting and banging of the people grew louder and louder as their sticks and weapons became more violent, closer to actually breaking into the stronghold that Stephen had safeguarded so far.

Sarah blinked hard. Her heart raced. Her brain began to rapidly link thoughts and events to emotions that had once overwhelmed her, and they pieced together a massive puzzle, a large message that seemed to make so much sense. Perhaps she had known it, perhaps she had said it, but never had she fully understood its meaning until now, bloodthirsty humans pounding at her doors.

"Stop it…" She muttered in her stupor. "Just stop it…" She stood up, looking at Sylvia and Lucien's data terminal.

"Mistress Sarah?" Lucien queried curiously.

"Did Stephen place anything on this ship for us to push those people away, or any megaphones?"

"He put a speaker system on board… will that work?"

"Link me up to them, to everything… I have something to say…" Sarah quivered, anxious and afraid.

* * *

The people massed outside the train in a frenzy, unable to actually reach the high windows of the vehicle, and mostly incapable of doing much other than beat the sides of the train, horrifying the already horrified animals within.

"Will you please just stop?" A calm, yet obviously upset voice spoke over a speaker. A face appeared on every single television in the city, and, with holographic windows, that was a lot of TV's.

"I finally think I get where he was going, my boyfriend. He had that radio station project going on to view the stupidity of our situation, running from a foe created through fear and fear alone. I am no diplomat; I am a bit more a fighter. I've fought you guys, not with fists or guns, but with my will. You… please, try to understand, I am like you guys… I know what it is like to be scared, to fear the thought of someone coming in and killing me in my sleep. To think that tomorrow is my last day on this planet, and I swear, I try to live with that. Twice now, I've attempted suicide, and both times, my boyfriend and family stopped me. Two of those three people are now dead. I of all people can say that I hate humans, I have more than enough reason to, but I don't. My God… he tells me to pity you. Stephen, my boyfriend, now smiling at me from above, he tells me to find a way out of this without fighting. He's done with it, and so am I.

"I don't want to pretend like I can stop all of the tensions and violent scuffles between us and you guys, I really don't think that any amount of time can rework that. But we can try to be friends, we can try, make an effort to not hate each other, to live peacefully, to maybe let each other grow and prosper from one another as we had in the past… I know… I'm nutty, and I'm desperate. Maybe…" Sarah's metal hand cupped her face and she sighed on camera, "All I want is a calm, nice place to grow up, and raise my kids… I guess by now I'm 3 weeks pregnant, and that is my wish. Stephen… I loved him. This ring and this child are all he left me other than memories. Those things and my life. To give up any would be a shame to his memory, and I don't want to do that." Sarah began crying a little bit, but her voice remained firm.

"So please, stop being scared, I don't want any more pain or misery at all. Set down your weapons, I want peace."

Sarah stepped out of the cab and looked at the people, staring at her. The humans' faces ranged with emotions of benightedness to empathy.

"Well, someone, if you're going to kill me and my friends and family, I'd rather it all done in a single blow." Sarah closed her eyed and took another step forwards towards the crowd.

The humans eyed her with suspicion, yet a single woman frowned at the scenario. A little more weight on her frame than most, she waltzed up to Sarah and towered over the girl by more than three heads. The crowd watched this woman in particular, curious at her actions.

In a single move, the woman knelt to Sarah's level and hugged her tightly, fconveying her intense sympathy for the hedgehog's case.

Sarah was taken aback by this, her mostly skinny body encompassed by this loving human woman. In a moment or so, she wrapped her arms around the human as well, setting a single precedent that would last a few generations.

"Honey, I have no idea as to how the hell you're going to do this, but I'll help you and your baby." The woman announced. The crowd of humans and the animals in the train either silently cheered, or faintly clapped, heads nodding in recognition to the momentous event.

"Lady, I'll be honest, there is only one right way to do it, one baby step at a time…"

* * *

**Oh yeah, Merry Christmas. ;D**


	24. Seeds of Love

**This marks the epilogue, the final epilogue, to my Seed of Love Series. I am thinking of adding MAYBE an addition of sorts to add a little humor and mysticism to the end... but I am still thinking about that...**

**Either way, here it is, Die Finale.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

It took me seven years to get there, to respond to the distress calls, and once I arrived, the damage was done, and the wounds were healing. At least, the wounds that could be healed were mending themselves.

* * *

Sarah sat on her couch after a long day's work. With her speed, she made for the world's greatest delivery girl, just like her father before her. It was a well paying job, and she was paid per delivery, so she made her keep to pay for the household.

The moment the that human showed care for her those seven years ago, humans let out their other emotions for animals. There were still some obvious tensions, but they weren't serious enough as to start another war. The animals had their own small community a small walk from Station square in the first year or so, and by now, many more had appeared as more and more animals came out of hiding.

Heroes were created from this time, and their memories had been stored away in a large garden, a garden that, in her spare time, Sarah helped manage and found. Stories of animals being hidden away for those years, secretly hiding away in annexes of buildings, evading GUN's most potent search forces became scary bedtime stories, and the struggles that the previous generation had faced became the stuff of legends.

Everyone in the world knew Sarah by now, her efforts to keep peace were unmatched throughout the world, and it didn't help that Sylvia and Lucien, now as robotic aides, broadcasted globally much of her speeches to keep tensions down.

The world had moved on, but sore reminders kept it from forgetting.

"Mom! The teacher keeps getting mad at me! He doesn't get that homework should be done at home and not have anything to do with school…" A small head, green eyed and colored with a faded red hue, appeared on the side of the couch.

Sarah smiled widely, nostalgic for a moment; Stephen had the same argument in another lifetime. "Watt, though kids your age shouldn't have homework yet, you have to do it. You're a really smart boy, and the teacher doesn't understand that fully yet. You have to give him some time; he's just going to be silly for awhile."

"But mom!"

"Mom! Guess what I did in school today!" A grayish blue, nearly cobalt, head appeared on the other end of the couch, Sarah had to turn her head to see her face.

"What, Xena?" Sarah asked happily, the joys of parenting never running dry.

"I learned how to divide! The class is so dumb; they didn't get it at all! I had to do a demo for them to get it,"

"Xenacia Maria Rose, do _not_ call people dumb." Sarah scolded, frowning.

"Sorry mom…" The little girl's posture broke and she looked fairly upset. She held wide arms out for a hug, the likes of which Sarah could not resist at all.

"It's fine… if I let you call people dumb, then one day you'll call me dumb!" Sarah announced, producing giggles from the children, both of which threw their arms around their mother, stretching over her waist multiple times.

"Hey! Watt! Your arms are getting tangled with mine!"

"Are not!"

"Are too! I can feel them!"

Sarah used her speed and jumped out from between them just as Xena lunged at Watt.

"Kids," Sarah spoke eager to correct the bad behavior as a blue and red ball began to form on the floor.

"Sorry mom…" they responded in unison.

"Go to your rooms for a moment, and relax, ok? Sylvia, Lucien, watch them, make sure they don't create some crazy invention to break the wall of the house down again.

"Affirmative, Mistress Sarah." Lucien trailed after Xena.

"Sure thing Sarah." Sylvia wheeled her way towards Watt.

Sarah once again sat down on the couch, sighing.

She gave birth to twins, a dynamic duo that had _both_ of the parents' powers. Stephen's mind and elasticity were given to each child, and Sarah's super speed turned six-year-old children into forces to be reckoned with.

Sarah wore her ring of solemn pride, her greatest of memories locked away for eternity in a single golden band. She wore it on her good, fresh hand, her robotic forearm being a little clumsy and tending to break down. With Stephen unable to constantly maintain it, the world's next brightest, active mind was called upon. Brian Prower, though his primary genius lay only in the medical field, had a knack for mechanics like his father, now an old hermit in the forest near his old workshop.

Brian and Luna had married soon after the humans made their peace, and had been trying to have a baby, though it wasn't working. Luna's condition scarcely improved, and was nearly permanently housebound. She stayed at home where Brian could take care of her. They lived next door to a hospital, the one Brian and Amy worked at. They visited often, and gave Sarah all the help they could.

Sarah shook her head, wiping away the nostalgia.

"I have to take the kids to see Tails again… then, we should go visit the gardens…" Sarah sighed. She logged onto her account at the mail site, posting a notice that she would not be attending her work today, too much to do.

A blast of energy startled Sarah and caused her to look down the hall where the kids bedrooms were.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" came a squeal.

"THAT WAS SO COOL!" another voice replied excitedly.

"What just happened? Someone had better tell me before I make you tell me." Sarah threatened, hiding her worry as she approached a scorched hole in the wall, frowning that she's have to have someone fix it.

"I was holding the gem, and I made a fire ball!" Watt exclaimed, giving his mother the red jewel he had been holding.

Sylvia and Lucien were powered on False Emeralds, and, while their surplus lasted, the little kids were allowed to play with a single emerald. Watt was given a red one, and Xena, an ocean blue, their opposite colors. The real Chaos Emeralds had been found, partially, and, again, the government was bickering about how to divide the 6 they had found. Sarah kept her mouth shut, but under her bedroom mattress, she possessed the Grey Chaos Emerald, and gazed into it longingly, remembering Stephen.

The Master Emerald was recovered shortly after Knuckles heard the message that it was on the ARK. Sylvia and Lucien allowed Knuckles access on the rocket Stephen had built and provided for this retrieval.

"If you insist on blowing up the house, I won't let you use these things anymore. They are very, very powerful objects, don't underestimate them. Watt, I'll tell you this, you did learn something very cool, it was probably the Spear technique, first of many attacks with those emeralds. But please, NEVER use them at people or in this house, understood?"

"Yes mom…" He grumbled dejectedly.

"Same goes for you, Xena."

"Aww… alright…"

"Now, come on, we're going on a little trip, burn off that energy!"

"YAY!" The kids ran and hugged their mother as she walked to the door, strapping on her shoes, ready for speedy running.

"So, we're going to the hospital to see grandma and Uncle Brian!" Sarah opened the door, and the two kids darted out, racing each other into the city. Sarah's home was stationed outside the city, facing the open fields where Stephen had given himself up.

"Sylvia, Lucien, watch the house." Sarah told her two inherited servants, and they nodded solemnly through their robotic cases.

* * *

In a mere moment, Sarah was caught up to her kids, and the trio ran into the hospital in a dash.

"I hear the wind!" An older voice called out the moment Sarah slowed to a stop.

"Hi grandma!" Watt and Xena leapt to Amy's waist gleefully.

"I think you two are growing bigger everyday!" Amy smiled at them, and then at Sarah.

"Well, we can make ourselves shorter and taller,"

"Duh." The twins explained.

"I do forget that." Amy admitted.

"Did I hear a sound barrier?" A voice inquired from around the corner.

"Uncle Brian!" The two darted around the bend, and a subsequent thud and grunt followed. Giggling ensued after that.

"How have you been?" Amy asked with a serious tone to her daughter.

"I'm managing. They are so full of energy… they truly are something else."

"You still miss him, don't you?"

"Well, yeah. But, I'm over it. He was nice while he was around." Sarah responded confidently.

"Sarah, you haven't dated a single guy, let alone even appeared to have wanted the comfort of one since he left you."

"Neither have you."

"I was married, you weren't."

Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but withheld it. Stephen's posthumous proposal still haunted her. The ring around her finger had a history known only to her, and hinted at to her children. Everyone knew Stephen was going to propose, it was so likely that it was practically inevitable. But his confusing request to her, after his death, still riddled her mind with questions.

"You're crazy mom, absolutely nutty." Sarah brushed her off.

A thick sigh later, Amy brought up a new conversation. "So, have you heard about Tails?"

"Kind of… I heard he was a hermit in the forest nowadays."

"Wow, for a post-girl, you don't listen to the gossip all that often. Brian verified it last month, Cosmo's spirit is in the tree next to Tails' hut."

Ever since the war, the Prower family was still a little off-balance. Brian was upset with his parent's feud and spent little time with them, and, even though Tails had in fact made his peace with Cosmo, the world never heard of it. Brian visited every so often, but never more than a few times in a year.

"He wouldn't have visited so early, but he had to see it for himself."

"That rumor I have heard. People have been gossiping about that topic for more than 4 months now. They're all abuzz, 'plants that walk' and 'Tails' wife's brood' and the like. So it is true then? The Seedrians are coming back?" Sarah leaned against a wall to rest her legs a bit.

"They are indeed. Cosmo, in her tree form, has begun to spew off female and now male Seedrians. They are few and they are scarce, but they grow fast. Brian found well over three dozen Mobian Seedrians dancing about the forest, they were all around the age of 5." Amy nodded as if to counter Sarah's initial disbelief.

"Cosmo would be proud…"

"I'm sure she is. And Brian now has a reason to visit his family more often, it just got a lot bigger."

"Grandma! Look what Uncle Brian made for us!" They rushed into the room and began to overwhelm Amy with their new gadgets.

"Hey Sarah," Brian smiled at her. Sarah nodded back, but seemed rather timid around him.

"Can you fix me up? My arm's been acting up lately…" Sarah held her mechanical arm up for Brian to see.

"Oh dear… it's been too long since I repaired this… well, come on into the lab…" Brian ushered her forwards into his medical lab, taking her arm without her.

Sarah hesitantly walked back into the room with a blank expression. She watched patiently in awkward silence as Brian tinkered with her arm. After about a minute and a half of saying nothing while sitting of her chair, she broke the silence.

"So what did you get my kids?"

"Well… I created these little sound boxes… basically, they're like little pianos, but they make a larger variety of sounds and also spew off harmless bundles of light, little orbs that respond to the music that is played."

"That sounded cool… how do they work?" Sarah asked, dully yet intrigued.

"Well, the soundboard is rather basic, but the orbs are a little experiment with antigravity. They are luminescent particles that are affected by the vibrations of the sound, the anti gravity keeps them afloat."

"God… that doesn't sound like something cheap…"

"Yeah… about that… don't worry about the price of those anti-gravity units, ok?" Brian smiled; he was always trying to make Sarah feel happier, feeling pity for her.

Sarah stood up the moment her arm was done being repaired, and reattached it promptly. Walking to leave with a small smile on her face, she turned to Brian.

"Thank you much Brian. I don't know where I'd be without you." She made a little giggle, wiggling her fingers.

"Don't mention it. Take care, Sarah." Brian responded, half smiling back.

* * *

A small amount of time afterwards, Sarah, Watt, and Xena said their goodbyes to Brian and Amy, and they headed off to the garden.

The garden overlooked the crater that the GUN base used to be stationed. Every week Sarah would go there and tend to it religiously. Her kids would sometimes come with her, helping out in whatever way they could.

Watt and Xena knew little about their father, and were always eager to learn more. Sarah held a quite a bit from them, unable to cope with some of Stephen's past herself. She figured her children didn't need to know why exactly he left, only that he wasn't coming back.

Sarah and her two kids walked into the garden, and strolled leisurely, paying their respects to the monuments within the floral garden. Statues of the heroes, Sonic, Shadow, and Stephen all stood glorified along the path. The statue of Sonic, the children's grandfather, even in death had a cocky smile on it. Youthful and gleeful in the metal, he was running at his supersonic speed into whatever mess lie ahead.

On the pedestal of the statue, a caption was engraved. "_Here is a memorial to Sonic the Hedgehog, lifelong protector and hero of Mobius, without his valiant efforts in both the Great Civil War and years prior to, the world would have been conquered many times over by the infamous Ivo Robotnik. Sonic was slain by alien robot XT-421 in the Battle of Laputa_."

"Rest in Peace… dad…" Sarah placed her fleshy hand onto the metal and sighed. The pain was still there, but it subsided eventually.

"Was he a good person mom?" Xena asked, pointing to her grandfather.

"Your grandfather was the greatest man alive, Xena. He was bold, fast, strong and brave. I couldn't have asked for a better dad."

"Did you love him?"

"I loved him dearly. He was always there when I needed him, and he is the reason I and you guys can run so fast." Sarah's breath quivered in her exhalation.

"Why is he smiling?"

Sarah laughed a bit, almost hysterically, "He was always like that, Watt. Grandpa was crazy when it came to battles. He ran in head first and always managed to get out of trouble. Just like you goons." With that, she tickled them to move on. Giggling, they complied more readily.

Walking through the garden, Sarah found the plaque with all the names of any animal presumed dead from the genocide. The list was enormous, and stretched in fine print the distance of a football field. Sarah's heart sank whenever she saw this list. _So many dead… no reasons for them to be dead… damn why did they have to die?_

Sarah placed a hand on the cool stone to which the names were forever remembered and ran her fingers through the lists of names as she walked.

"They are all dead?" Watt asked.

"Yes Watt. They are all dead."

"Why did the humans do that?" Xena asked in turn.

"They were scared of us animals. Don't hate them, understand? They didn't know what they were doing. They were dummies, and killed many, many people because they were scared that we would hurt them."

"Why though?"

Sarah was silent for a bit, looking for a parable to teach from, "It is hard to understand and explain. Animals and stronger, and smarter than humans. We are more in just about everything, good and bad about us. The humans thought that we were going to attack them because we had the power to. But, we were typically very laid back and humble about our powers."

"What's humble mean?"

"It means we held back, and didn't use them very often. But the humans thought that we would hurt them and take away their stuff. They were scared, and some bad people, people who are gone, lied to the people, making them believe bad things about animals, and slowly, the humans were tricked into wanting to kill all of the animals."

"I kind of get it… like beating up the kid who _might_ take your pencil at school?" Watt asked sweetly.

"You haven't beaten anyone up, have you?" Sarah scolded, giving her son a look.

"No, that would be stupid, right?"

"Exactly. Just like the humans attacking us animals. It was a stupid, dumb mistake." _All of those lives lost… a mistake… damn it…_

"I see…" Xena kept walking forwards, towards the kids' favorite statue.

"_This statue is here to honor the heroism of Stephen the Deviant. Without his extraordinary efforts, the lives of nearly 500 animals would be lost to the War. Stephen gave his life to destroy the alien robot XT-421._"

It was short, sweet, and a horrible, horrible understatement to the sacrifice he went through.

"Daddy…" Watt and Xena looked at him with awe, pride, and mystical wonder. Their father was a source of legendary mystery, and few told them enough stories about him, especially the unique situation of his death.

"Stephen…" Sarah placed a hand on the metal chest of the semblance of her beloved.

"Did you love daddy?"

"Very much…" Sarah whispered.

"Why did he die?"

"Because the humans were winning. They almost had us all killed… they had a superweapon that couldn't be destroyed. Daddy destroyed it, but in the process, he was killed."

"Why did he have to leave us?"

"There was no other way for us to all live. Daddy died for us." Sarah breathed in deeply.

"Why don't you tell us about him?" Xena asked, curious.

"I don't know… I don't understand it myself really… I still think that all of this is a nightmare…"

"So… you… don't love us?" Xena, and shortly after Watt, began to cry.

Sarah stood, dumbfounded at this question. So selfish she had become in a few moments she had forgotten about her children's feelings.

"No… it isn't that Xena… I love you and Watt more than anything in the whole world… it's just… I miss daddy, a lot… it is… bittersweet…"

"Bittersweet?" The kids still sobbed a bit.

"It is something that is very sweet, or happy, but at the same time… very sad and..." Sarah hugged her children tightly. "You two goons are two of the best things that ever happened to me. But, in order to have you two, I couldn't have daddy. I love you two and daddy so much, it is very hard to lose one of you… That is why I am always upset about daddy. I don't want to think about him, he makes me sad, but at one point made me really happy. But I can't help but think about him, because he has done so much for me in my life… he gave me this arm, you know." She wiggled her fingers on her mechanical arm.

"Come on… let's keep going." Sarah stood up and had the children, their toys deposited at home, made their way towards the crater. "I'm going to give you a little history on your dad… just a bit, ok?"

That brightened their mood, and they darted with Sarah to the crater.

"Ok… to start out with… I'll tell you one of the scarier things about your dad…" Sarah began, taking a seat in the crater next to her kids. "Do you remember all of those stories in your history books? Where grandpa Sonic would defeat Eggman?"

Giggles verified their knowledge of the silly name.

"Well, Eggman died long ago… but he cloned himself… and his clone called himself Damian… Damian wanted to get back and Sonic, me, and grandma because we made fun of his dad, Eggman, so much. So, he created a living weapon, just like Shadow the Hedgehog. This weapon _was_ your father."

"So daddy was bad?" Xena shouted, shocked.

"No no, sweetie, a person's parents doesn't tell them who they are. You can be anyone and anything you want to be when you get older, and daddy did just that. He was treated badly by Damian, so he ran away, and I found him, and brought him back to health. That was when we first met…" Sarah's eyes twinkled, looked down at her kids from the sitting position she was in.

"The scary thing, was when Damian tried to take him back. Daddy went crazy because Damian messed with his brain, and he tried to kill me."

"Daddy tried to kill you?!" Watt exclaimed, worried for his mother's safety.

"He did. But he wasn't thinking straight. That is how I got this arm. Daddy chopped it off while trying to kill me. And…" Sarah's smile of the event confused her children, "he was trying to kill me, and had me pinned up against a wall, and it was then I realized I was going to die… I told him that I loved him, even though he was a monster, and I kissed him." Xena squealed a little bit, and Watt made an icky face, "that kiss woke him up and he apologized so heavily. I think I was only like 10 then…

"Now… regarding Stephen's death… walk with me a little bit… we need to stretch our legs out a little bit." She stood up, and with her, her two children followed. "So… you know Great Uncle Tails, right?"

"Yeah…" They both said.

"Well, he's Brian's dad, and he is a super genius. He built this huge workshop where tons of cool and creative machines worked for him on big project such as planes and robots. Stephen was smarter than him when he was only 13. Your dad was smarter than the world's smartest person when he was only 6 years older than either of you." Sarah spoke slowly, to let the awe seep into them, "That was when they attacked us, the humans. That night, Stephen panicked with me, and we gathered as many people as we could before the humans could get them, and brought them into Tails' workshop. There, Stephen and Tails worked on a huge machine on the outside of the workshop that picked the whole workshop," Sarah held her arms out to show the immensity of the place, "into the sky and kept it there for 4 years.

"There, he was our leader. Daddy led all of us fugitive animals on missions where we'd get food and water from the ground, and we worked to gather the 7 Chaos Emeralds, I'm sure you know what those are, a little bit."

"You make a wish after you get all 7, and it comes true, right?"

"Kind of… more like… it gives you the power to make it come true. But, yes… we worked to get all 7, and eventually, we did. But, GUN, the bad people, they had found a very powerful robot named XT-421. He was very strong, and he used to be our friend. But something was wrong with him, he lost his soul. He forgot about us and obeyed the bad people and began to hunt us down. Daddy planned that grandpa would attack XT with the wish from the 7 Chaos Emeralds, but, before we could gather all 7, we had six, and Uncle Brian was getting the 7th at that moment, XT and Damian Robotnik killed grandpa.

"Then, your father…" Sarah stumbled with her words, looking forwards, "he used the 7 Chaos Emeralds… he… made a wish. A wish that I would live, and you two would be born, and that we could live happily ever after."

"And he fought XT and won?"

"It wasn't a win Watt… in battles… I'm sure if he were alive he'd explain it better… there is no such thing as a true win or a true loss. He got what he wanted, your father, a chance for us to live, love, and be happy, a future to live. But… the price to pay for this was his own life. He died while blowing up XT and GUN in a single move, but he saved us all." Sarah looked down before the tears came from her eyes.

There in the ground, a small twinkle of green shone from underneath a layer of dust on the ground. Reaching down, Sarah pulled from the dirt a green amulet.

"No way…" Sarah fell to her knees upon rubbing a small engraving on the back of the socket, _Malavar's Eye. _It was the same necklace she'd given Stephen for good luck during the war. Falling completely on her hands and knees, she began to sob violently.

"Mom? Are you ok?"

"Stephen… I miss you so much…" Sarah wailed unable to be strong near her kids any longer. 7 years had gone by, and her pain had not yet gone away. Two pairs of arms leaned over her and wrapped around her, trying to hug her the best they could as she cried.

"Don't be sad mom… you said he died to save us. Be happy that he was that nice."

The consolation made sense, but, spoken from such innocent lips it only made it worse.

"I have been blessed… not cursed… he gave me two beautiful children to watch over and care for… thank you…" Sarah spoke aloud, hugging her kids as she fell over and lie on the ground.

_FLASH_

"There ought to be some fragment of his existence here… with all the cries of terror about existence, I'm sure a horrific element landed here as well." A woman's voice spoke glumly behind them.

Sarah turned quickly after wiping her eyes and stared the creature behind them. Green eyed and metallic silver, the robot donned smooth skin and a blue dress, complete with shoulder spikes and slippers, it walked looked around to collect its bearings.

The robot's sad voice responded once again the moment its solemn eyes met with Sarah's.

"Sarah Rose… it has been a long, long time…" The female voice echoed in the crater.

"Mom, who is that?" Sarah's kids asked, hiding behind her.

"I… Ms. Q? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Picking up the pieces. I heard a cry. I came to help. What is the problem? I can't do much as I have been placed under the wanted list of the Mythic Ones…" Quasar spoke with little tone in her voice.

"Don't even show your face here! You are so late, they're all dead! Stephen, Sonic, everything's gone to hell since your father went on his killing spree!" Sarah growled, placing the blame on someone else again.

"I understand. There is indeed nothing I can do… I wish not for your forgiveness… I shall receive none wherever it is I go. Come, brother, we must find mom's pendant."

A little boy around the age of seven came out from the shadows behind Quasar. He has pointy, elf-like ears, green eyes, and silvery white hair. Walking with alien grace, he strode to his sister's side, and bowed before Sarah.

"Greetings Sarah, I am Inori, last of the Rinocians. I convey to you my sincerest apologies for my father's horrendous acts, his soul was stolen from his body, and it would appear that somehow, his body reactivated itself. I am thoroughly impressed that you succeeded in downing him. Mission well accomplished. Now if you would be so kind as to excuse me, my biological sister and I must scour this planet until we find the pendant my father had in his possession. Quasar and I are collecting all of the fragments of our father so that no history will or can be altered by our existence. We are terribly apologetic for our interference with your humble lives. We shall go in peace now." Inori bowed once more, an eerie, grown up move, and turned sharply, and walked off with his sister, in step like a robot.

"That was… XT's son… imagine his life…" Sarah shuddered, making a prayer for the two.

* * *

The small Rose family sat there in silent somber, and waited for the day to pass. Together, they would make it through the years, growing, adapting to the pain as Stephen could adapt to anything. Watt and Xena would compete against the greatest human minds of the world with ease and joy, supporting their kind and caring mother, repairing her arm until the day she finally died.

Amy would remain a doctor and true to her religious goals until she could finally be reunited with her Sonic in the skies above.

Brian and Luna would adopt the Seedrians as their children, but Luna would never exit her home again. They lived happily until Luna died at the young age of 39. From there on out, Brian followed his father's footsteps as a hermit in the woods, raising and teaching the Seedrians how to use plants and nature to treat any ailment. As a mass, the Seedrians brought forth a great advance in medical technology in the years following.

Tails eventually died, but Cosmo's tree would eternally be bound to the lifeforce of the planet. Tails was buried in the roots of Cosmo, so that she could cradle his body once more.

Elsewhere in the planet, another sect of Seedrians, experts on building houses while using the least amount of resources and disturbing the least amount of an environment, appeared slowly but surely. Rumors grew, whispered on the winds of the Western Mountains, of a great golden tree, bearing the greatest beauty in all the land, protected by a large silver wolf.

And in the depths of space, slowly coming together like reverse reproduction, a thought train had begun to form. _Ack… my aching body… Gerald… why did you do this to me?_

Throughout the world, however, no one ever forgot the pain that Julie wrought upon the world indirectly. And no one ever forgot the triumphant efforts of Stephen the Great, as he came to be known, and his legendary expedition to save animal-kind form utter extinction.

Inori and I made ourselves never heard from again, leaving people to sow their own Seeds of Love.

* * *

**FIN**


End file.
